^  <'.'  h 


k  n^ 


THOS.  W.KNOX. 


HANOVER 

Fire  Insurance  Company, 

No.  181  Broadway,  New  York. 

Cash  Capital, $1,000,000.00 

Reserve  for  Re-Insurance,  .        .        .  475,262.37 

Reserve  for  all  other  Ll\bilities,   .  94,193.32 

Net  Surplus, 830,626.59 

Total  Assets,  January,  18S1,    .        .    $2,400,082.28 

BENJAMIN  S.  WALCOTT,  PRESIDENT. 

I.  REMSEX  LAXE,  Vice-President  and  Secretary. 

CHARLES  L.  ROE,  Assistant  Secretar\-. 


Chesapeake  k  Ohio  Railway. 

LAID  WITH    STEEL  RAIL. 

The  only  route  between  the  East  and  West  via  White 
Sulphur  and  various  otlier  Springs  and  Pleasure  Resorts 
in  the  beautiful  and  picturesque  mountains  of  Virginia 
and  West  Virginia. 

Reoriilar  and  Excursion  Tickets  on  sale  at  all  principal 
Ticket  Offices  throughout  the  United  States  at  lowest 
rates.     Sleeping  Cars  and  all  modern  improvements. 

j;;:^^  See  Circulars  of  the  Grand  Centennial  Celebration 
at  Yorktown,  Va.,  in  October,  1S81, 

H.  W.  CARR,   Gen  I  Eastern  Agent, 

229  Broadwav,  N'ew  York. 

CONWAY  R.  HOWARD,  Gen' I  Pass,  and  Ticket  Agent, 

RICHMOND,  VA- 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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DUE  2  WKS  FRfiy 


5  1S99 


DATE  RECEIVED 


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FEB  1 


ilL-CiZP 
4  2005 


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nterilbrary  Ucan§ 

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FISK  &  HATCH, 

AND 

DEJILEI[S  in  GOYEpMENT  BONDS 

y^nd  otheF  desiFable  Investment  Seeurities, 

No.  5  Nassau  St.,  N.  Y. 


Buy  and  sell  all  issues  of  Government  Bonds,  in  large 
or  small  amounts,  at  current  market  prices,  and  wiJl  be 
pleased  to  furnish  information  in  reference  to  all  matters 
connected  with  investments  in  Government  Bonds. 

We  are  prepared  to  give  information  in  regard  to  first- 
class  Railway  Securities  and  to  execute  orders  for  the 
same. 

Buy  and  sell  all  marketable  Stocks  and  Bonds  on  com- 
mission at  the  Stock  Exchange  or  in  the  open  market. 

Receive  accounts  of  Banks,  Bankers,  Merchants,  and 
others,  and  allow  interest  on  daily  balances ;  and  for  those 
keeping  accounts  with  us  we  collect  U.  S.  coupons  and 
registered  interest,  and  other  coupons,  dividends,  etc.,  and 
credit  without  charge. 

^^^  We  give  special  attention  to  orders  from  Banks, 
Bankers,  Institutions,  and  Investors  out  of  the  city,  by 
Mail  or  Telegraph,  to  buy  or  sell  Government  Bonds, 
State  and  Railroad  Bonds,  Bank  Stocks,  Railroad  Stocks, 
and  other  securities. 

FISK  &  HATCH. 


PASSENGER  STEAMSHIPS 


FLEET. 

Spain,  Egypt,  England,  Erin,  Helvetia,  The  Queen, 

Italy,  Fr.\nce,  Holland,  Denmark,  Canada,  Greece. 

The  Steamships  of  this  line  are  amongst  the  largest  in 
the  Atlantic  service  leaving  the  Port  of  New  York.  They 
have  been  constructed  by  the  most  celebrated  builders  in 
Great  Britain,  and  are  of  great  strength  and  power,  and  of 
beautiful  model,  enabling  them  to  make  regular  passage  in 
all  kinds  of  weather.  They  are  built  entirely  of  Iron  and 
Steel,  except  the  merely  decorative  parts,  and  divided  into 
watertight  and  fireproof  compartments,  with  steam  pump- 
ing, hoisting,  and  steering  gear,  and  provided  with  fire- 
extinguishers,  improved  sounding  apparatus,  and  generally 
found  throughout  in  eversthing  Calculated  to  add  to  their 
Safety,  and  to  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  Passengers 
heretofore  unattained  at  sea. 

One  of  the  Steamers  will  sail  from  New  York  every 
Saturday  for  Queenstown  and  Liverpool,  and  weekly  from 
London  direct,  from  Pier  39,  North  River. 

Rates  of  Passage,  in  currency : — To  Queenstown  and 
Liverpool,  $50  to  $70.  To  London  direct  (Yictoria  Docks), 
$50  to  $60;  Excursion  Tickets,  $100  currency.  Steerage 
passage,  outward,  $26  currency.  Prepaid  Tickets,  $28, 
being  $2  lower  than  most  other  lines. 

For  passage,  Bank  Drafts,  Sovereigns,  etc.,  apply  to 
F.  ^V.  J.  HURST,  Manager,  Company's  Offices, 

Nos.  69,  71,  and  73  Broadway,  New  York- 


^i44.teh  States   9Ttai{   Stuavnc/c^ 

SAIL    WEEKLY    TO    AND    FROM 

New  York  and  Glasgow, 

AND 

New  York  and  London. 


THE  ANCHOR  LINE  STEAMERS  are  first-class  in 
every  respect,  built  especially  for  Passenger  Traffic ;  are 
safe,  comfortable,  reliable,  splendidly  equipped,  and  in 
their  appointments  and  accommodations  are  not  excelled 
by  any  other  Line. 

RATES  OF  PASSAGE  FROM  NEW  YORK 

To  Glasgow,  Livefpool,  Londonderry,  op  Belfast. 

Aft  Outside  Berth,  $80  f  ^-P PC T  )  Excursion  $140 
Aft  Inside  Berth,  $75<r^A^TM  ^  Tickets,  available  130 
Forward  Berth,        $60  (  '-^^^^-  )      for  One  Year,     no 

TO  LONDON  DIRECT.— First  Cabin,  $55  and  $65; 
Excursion,  ^100  and  ^120,  according  to  location  of  State- 
room. 

For  Books  of  Information  for  Passengers,  Rates  of 
Passage,  Cabin  Plans,  etc.,  apply  to 

COMPANY'S  OFFICES. 
7  Bowling  Green,  New  York. 

96  Washington  Street,  Chicago. 

7  and  9  State  Street,  Boston. 

HEUDERSONliiERS,  Agents. 


American  Exchange  in  Europe, 

(LIMITED.) 
CAPITAL,   ONE   MILLION  DOLLARS, 

;/;i  One  Hundred  Thousand  S'lares  of  Ten  Do'lars  each,  tcith power  to  increase.) 

Fully  Paid-up  Shakes,  $500,000.00. 
PRESIDENT,  GEN'L  MANAGER, 

Joseph  R.  Hawely.  Henry  F.  Gillig. 


Financial  Offixes  and  Reading  Rooms, 
Passenger  and  Railroad  Offices, 
E xcltange  atid  News  Department, 
Commission  atid  Shipping  Departments 
Emigration  ajtd  Land  Branclus, 
Express  and  Storage  Divisions,     . 

LONDON,    ENGLAND 


449  STRAXD,   Jr.  C. 


}  3  ADELAIDE  ST., 
(         CHARING  CROSS, 


NEW  YORK  BRANCH  OFFICE,  102  Broadway, 

General  Agent, W.  C.  BOONE. 

Fiscal  Agents,  ,        .        DOXXELL,  LAWSON  &  SIMPSON. 

Braftch    Office  of  Commission  atid  Shipping  Departments, 

50  BROADWAY,  NEW  YORK. 


The  gexer.vl  object  of  this  Compaxy  is  to  Advance 
AND  Protect  American  Interests  in  Europe: 

I  St. — By  establishing  direct  Business  and  Financial  Relations  between 

every  important  business   centre   of  the  United   States  and  the 

great  commercial  and  money  centres  of  Europe. 
2d. — By  opaning  up  and  extending  new  markets  in  Europe  for  American 

Alanufactures  and  other  Products,  and  Railroad,  Mining,  Landed, 

and  other  Properties. 
3d. — By    promoting    Emigration  from   England  and   other   European 

countries  to  the  United  States. 
4th. — By  aiding  and  protecting  American  Travel  in  Europe  through  the 

extension  of  Financial  Facilities  to  Travelers,  and  rendering  other 

necessary  sen'ices. 
5th. — By  promoting  European  Travel  to  the  United  States,  and  through 

the  United  States  to  Japan,  China,  Australia,  etc. 


TRAVELERS'  CIRCULAR  XOTES,  available  throughout  the 
world,  issued  without  charge,  for  actual  value  in  cash. 

N.  B.  The  Circular  Notes  issued  by  this  corporation  are  secured  by 
deposit  of  United  States  Government  Bonds. 

LETTERS  OF  CREDIT  issued  either  against  deposit  of  cash,  or 
satisfactorv  guarantee  of  pavm^nt. 

MOXEV  TRANSMITTED  BY  TELEGRAPH  to  all  points. 

DRAFTS  issued  at  current  rates  on  all  principal  cities  of  the  world. 

Henry   F.   Gillig,  General  Manager. 


PARTIES    GOING  ABROAD   SHOULD   LEAVE 
THEIR  PROPERTY  SAFELY  INSURED. 


Condition  January  i,  i88i,  of 

CONTINENTAL 

Insurance  Company, 
100  Broadway,  New  York, 

Reserve  for  re-insurance  of  outstr.nding  risks,  $1,346,195.69 
Reserve  ample  for  all  other  claims,  .  .  286,387.95 
Capital  paid  in  in  cash,  .....  1,000,000.00 
Unallotted  Surplus  [reserved  for  contingencies],  306,135.77 
Net  Surplus, 1,000,000.00 

#3»938,7i94i 
Deduct  for  future  decline  [if  any,]  in  market 

values, 50,000.00 

Total  cash  assets,  January  i,  1881,         .         .  5^3,888,719.41 


This  Company  conducts  its  business  under  the  restric- 
tions of  the  New  York  Safety  Fund  Law.   The  two  Safety 
Funds  together  equal  $1,000,000. 
H.  H.  LAMPORT,  GEORGE  T.  HOPE, 

Vice-President.  President. 

B.  C.  TOWNSEND,  Soc'y  Agency  Dep't.  CYRUS  PECK,  Secy. 

C.  H.  DUTCHER.  Scc'y  Brooklyn  Dep't.  A.  !W.  KIRBY,  Secy  local  Dep't. 
J.  K.  OAKLEY.  Gcn'l  Agent.                      F.  C  MOORE,  Agency  Manager. 


Mallory  Lines. 

BRAZIL,  TEXAS,  FLORIDA, 

IIASSAUJ.P„>NDM>pZAS,CUBA. 

The  ONLY  Direct  Lines  of  Passenger  Steamships 
from  New  York  to  TEXAS  and  FLORIDA,  and  the 
onlv  Steamship  Lines  to  BRAZIL,  NASSAU,  N.  P.,  and 
MATAXZAS,  CUBA. 


BFazil  SieameFS  Sail  otti  of  EveFy  Month 

For  St  Thomas,  Para,  Pernambuco,  Bahia,  and  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  connecting  at  St.  Thomas  with  Steamers  for 
Porto  Rico,  Jamaica,  and  the  Spanish  Main.  Through 
rates  and  Bills  of  Lading  given  to  Paranagua,  Santa 
Catherina,  Rio  Grande  do  Sul,  Pelotas,  and  Porto  Alegre. 

Through  Tickets  Issued  to  All  Points 

reached  by  the  Royal  Mail  Packet  Company's  Inter- 
colonial Steamers,  and  to  Monte  Video,  and  Buenos  Ayres. 


Texas  SteamoFs  Sail  Eygfj  SatuFday 

For  GALVESTON,  giving  through  Freight  and  Passage 
Rates  to  all  points  in  Texas. 


Florida  SteamoFS  Sail  EvoFy  Friday 

For    JACKSONVILLE    and    FERNANDINA,   FLA, 

Pamphlets  and   Schedules  mailed,  and  all  information 
given  upon  application  to 

C,  H.  MylLLORY  HO.,  Agehts, 

Pier  20  East  River,  near  Fulton  Ferry,   New  York. 


BEFORE    LEAVING    HOME 

PROVIDE  YOURSELF  WITH  A  SUPPLY  OF 

Parkers   Ginger  Tonic. 

The  occasional  use  of  this  deHcious  medicine  will  prevent  any 
dangerous  consequences  from  changing  diet  or  water,  and  travelers  will 
find  it  an  unequalled  appetizer  and  an  mvigorant  to  the  highest  degree, 
without  Jhtoxicating  properties.  It  strengthens  the  Stomach,  Bowels, 
and  Digestive  Organs,  builds  up  the  system,  is  a  sure  remedy  for  Sea 
Sickness,  Dyspepsia,  Dysentery,  etc.,  and  is  the 

BEST  MEDICINE  YOU  CAN  USE  FOR 

Restoring  Health  i  Strength, 

A  bottle  of  this  Tonic  by  keeping  you  in  good  health  and  spirits 
will  greatly  increase  the  pleasure  of  any  journey. 

Sold  by  all  Druggists  at  50  Cents,  and  $1.00. 

LARGE  SAVING  IN  BUYING  THE  DOLLAR  SIZE. 

HISCOX  &  CO.,  Proprietors, 

163  WILLIAM  STREET,  N.  Y. 


Flore STON    Cologne, 

Is  the  most  lasting,  delicate,  and  fragrant  of  perfumes.  As  it 
relieves  Headache,  Prostration,  and  Nervousness,  often  induced  by  the 
fatigue  of  travel,  it  will  be  found  an  exceedingly  refreshing  and  delight- 
ful toilet  companion. 

Price,  25  Cents;  Large  Bottles,  75  Cents. 

Wlanufaclured  onl)  bf  HISCOX  &  CO.,  Chemists,  Mew  York 


Parkers   Hair    Balsam, 

THE  BEST,  CLEANEST,  AND  MOST  ECONOMICAL  HAIR  DRESSING. 

Elegantly  perfumed  and  made  from  materials  that  are  beneficial  to 
the  hair  and  scalp.  Parker's  Hair  Balsam  is  far  more  satisfactory  than 
any  other  hair  preparation.     It 

Never  Fails  to  Restore  GJ-ray  Hair 

to  the  youthful  color,  and  beauty  and  is  warranted  to  prevent  baldness, 
falling  of  the  hair,  and  dandruff. 

50  Cent  and  $1.00  Sizes  at  all  Druggists. 

HISCOX  &   CO.,    New   York. 


ICH  MORGAN'S 


HAND  SAPOLIO, 


Is  far  preferable  to  the  best  brands  of  Soap. 

It  is  a  perfect  emollient,  keeping  the  skin  smooth  and  soft 
under  all  climatic  changes  and  exposure. 

It  is  delightfully  Scented,  and  wears  away  slowly. 

Its  frequent  use  will  remove  tan,  stains  of  all  kinds,  ink, 
and  other  blemishes  from  the  skin. 

It  will  also  completely  remove  grease  and  stains  from 
garments,  and  rust  from  metal. 

EVERY  TRAVELEU  SHOULD  CABBY  IT. 

Each  cake  in  wrapped  in  tinfoil,  and  a  year's  supply 
occupies  but  small  space. 

Sold  l)|  all  Grocers  and  Faocy  Goods  Dealers  Itirougfiout  America, 

MANUFACTURED    ONLY    BY 

22  Park  Place,  New  York. 


Nothing  is  so  Refreshing  and  Invigorating 


^^  NON  ALCOHOLIC  ^\!i 

//    SPARKUNGPHOSPHATED  IRON  BEVERAGe>\\ 

MANCUS  TH  E  ZOEDON  E  C?  L?  WREXHAM. 


EVERY  BOTTLE  PREPARED  FOR  AMERICA  HAS  OVER 
THE  CORK  SIGNATURE  OP 

^^XS. U.S.  REOISTtRED  TRADE  MARK  No.  8068. 

NO  NEW  ONTRIED  BEVEnUGE,  BUT  HAVING  AN  ESTABLISHED  PRESTIGE 

CONFERRED    BY  THE 

^eyjIiJWMIW'   NOBILITY,  GENTRY, 
AND  PEOPLE  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN, 

Consuming  jlnnually  Ovep  Ten  Million  Bottles, 

AND   THE 

INDORSEMENT  OF  HIGH  MEDICAL  AUTHORITY. 

"  The  use  of  Zoedone  is  followed  by  all  the  refreshing 
and  stimulating  effects  of  champagne  without  fear  of 
intoxication  or  after  injurious  reactionary  effects.  On  the 
contrary  the  iron  and  phosphorus  in  Zoedone  combine 
to  convert  what  would  otherwise  be  an  agreeable  but 
ephemeral  stimulant  into  a  valuable  tonic." 
PACKED  WITHOUT  STRAW. 

$15  per  case,  Six  Tozen  Pints ;  $8  Three  Dozen  Pints. 

Supplied  by  Wine  Merchants,   Grocers,  Druggists. 


THE   MOST   RELIABLE 

Trunks,  Bags,  Valises,  &c,, 


ARE    MADE    BY 


CROUCH  &  FITZGERALD, 

NEW   YORK. 


TRUNKS 

For  American  Steamer  and  European  Travel. 

Yii\k  Fii(E  Qu/LiTY  OF  \mu^  B/GS,  &c,  &c. 

STORES : 
1  Cortland  Street.  (New  Store,) 

556  Broadway.  723  Slxth  Avenue, 

Below  Forty-Second  Street. 

^(^^  Send  for  Illustrated  Catalogue. 


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TO  THE  WASTEFUL  PEOPLE  IN  THIS  COUNTRY 

BY  THE  USE  OF  THIS   SAFE   GUIDE. 


The  New  York  Tribune  says:  "For  comprehensiveness 

and  precision,  this  book  may  be  said  to  be  unique." 
The  Boston  Traveller  says  :  "  In  her  New  Cook-Book, 

Miss  Parloa  has  rendered  a  good  service  to  humanity." 
The  New  York  Times  says :  "  It  has  no  nonsense  in  it, 

and  can  be  recommended  for  general  use." 
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the  best  book  of  its  kind  ever  printed." 


I  vol.,  i2mo,  cloth,  430  pages,  and  89  illustrations,  $1.50. 

Published  by  ESTES  &  LjlURl/lT,  Boston. 

For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.  Sent  postpaid  on  receipt  of  price, 


TRAVELING  COMPANIONS. 

^EFOI^  ^TAI^ING  ON  A  ^OUJE^EY,  ^TOW  ^WAY 
SOME  J^LEASANT   NoVEL    IN    YOUR  ^ATCHEL. 


We  invite  attention  to  the  following  choice  selection  of 
Novels  : 

THE  NO  NAME  SERIES. 

Mercy  Philbrick's  Choice;  Afterglow;  Deirdre;  Hetty's 
Strange' History ;  Is  that  All?  Will  Denbigh,  Nobleman; 
Kismet;  The  Wolf  at  the  Door;  The  Great  Match; 
Marmorne  ;  Mirage  ;  A  Modern  Mephistopheles ;  Gemini ; 
A  Masque  of  Poets.  i6mo,  Cloth,  Black  and  Gold,  price 
31.00  each. 

THE  NO  NAME  (SECOND)  SERIES. 

Signor  Monaldini's  Niece;  The  Colonel's  Opera  Cloak; 
His  Majesty,  Myself ;  Mrs.  Beauchamp  Brown  ;  Salvage ; 
Don  John.'  Manuela  Paredes  (in  preparation).  i6mo, 
Cloth,  Green  and  Gold,  price  $1.00  each. 

By  the  Tiber  ;  a  novel,  by  the  author  of  "  Signor  Monal- 
dini's Niece." 

The    Head  of  Medusa;    a  novel,    by  the  author  of 
"  Kismet  "  and  "  Mirage  " 

Blessed   Saint  Certainty;    by  the  author  of   "His 
Majest}-,  Myself." 
Uniform  volumes,  i6mo.  Cloth,  Black  and  Gold,  price 

$1.50  each. 

My  Marriage;  a  novel,  i6mo,  cloth,  price  $1.00. 
Irene  the  Missionary;  a  novel,  i6mo,  cloth,  price  $1.25. 
Moondyne;  a  story  of  the  Under-World,  by  John  Boyle 

O'Reillv;   i6mo,  cloth,  price  $1.50. 
Sar.\h  De  Berenger  ;  a  novel,  bv  Jean  Ingelow ;  uniform 

with  "  Off  the   Skelligs  "  and  "  Fated  to  be  Free  " ; 

i6mo,  cloth,  price  §1.50. 


These  books  can  be  procured  of  any  Bookseller,  or  the 
Publishers  will  mail  them,  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS,  Boston. 


Books  for  European  Tourists. 


A  SATCHEL  GUIDE  for  the  Vacation  Tourist 
IN  Europe.  A  compact  itinerary  of  the  British  Isles, 
Belgium  and  Holland,  Germany  and  the  Rhine,  Switzer- 
land, France,  Austria,  and  Italy.  With  Maps,  Appendix, 
and  Memoranda  pages.  Revised  every  year.  i6mo, 
roan,  flexible,  |2.oo. 

"The  book  is  indeed  a  model  of  perspicacity  and  brevity; 
all  the  advice  it  gives  will  be  found  of  immediate  service. 
The  '  Satchel  Guide  '  tells  the  reader  hoiv  to  travel  cheaply 
without  a  saci'ifice  of  comfort,  and  this  feature  of  the  book 
will  recommend  it  to  many  Tourists." — Pall  Mall 
Gazette. 

SAUNTERINGS.  By  Charles  Dudley  Warner.  $1.25. 
"  The  book  contains  a  little  about  England  and  France, 
more  about  Switzerland  and  Holland,  and  a  great  deal 
concerning  South  Germany  and  Italy.  There  is  not  a  dull 
page  in  it." — Springfield  Republican. 

CASTILIAN  DAYS.  A  very  attractive  book  by  John 
Hay,  treating  the  history,  country,  cities,  people,  and 
politics  of  Spain.     $2.00. 

THE  LANDS  OF  SCOTT.    By  Jahes  F.  Hunnewell. 

$2.50. 

*'  It  is  a  delightful  epitome  of  the  great  author's  life  and 
works ;  the  reader  being  introduced  to  a  detailed  acquaint- 
ance with  these,  while  he  is  led  through  the  localities  which 
the  genius  of  Scott  has  celebrated." — Buffalo  Courier. 

OLD  ENGLAND :  Its  Scenery,  Art,  and  People. 
By  Prof.  James  M.  Hoppin,  of  Yale  College.  i6mo, 
$1.75.  Includes  descriptions  of  Derbyshire,  Devonshire, 
the  Lake  Country,  Cornwall,  the  Old  Cathedral  Towns, 
and  those  Historic  Scenes  which  most  interest  Tourists. 


***  For  sale  by  Booksellers.     Sent  postpaid  on  receipt 
)f  price  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  Boston,  Mass. 


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TROUBLE  AND  EXPENSE  BY  PLACING  THEM    IN   CHARGE  OF 

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Parcels,  packages,  statuarv,  paintings,  and  valuables 
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Liverpool ;  Lherbette,'  Kane  &  Co.,  9  Rue  de  la  Bourse, 
Havre :  Matthias  Rohde  &  Co.,  Hamburg  •  J.  H.  Bach- 
mann,  Bremen;  A.  Wnrmuth,  Berlin  :  Maouav,  Hooker  & 
Co.,  Rome:  Maquav.  Hooker  &  Co.,  Florence',-  W.  J.  Tur- 
ner &  Co.,  Xa])le<^ ;  Guiseppe  Scala.  Xaples  •  Cnrlo  Ponti, 
Venice;  E.  Ramirez,  16  >rercaderes.  Havana-,  John  Wallis, 
Cork ;   John  Wallis,  ^Z  Bachelors'  Walk,  Dublin. 


WHITE  STjl[[  up 

United  States  and  Royal 

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BETWEEN 

New  York,  Queenstown,  and  Liyerpool, 

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They  are  all  of  them,  without  exception,  among  the 
largest  and  finest  of  ocean  steamers,  and  were  constructed 
with  special  reference  to  the  conveyance  of  passengers. 

The  saloon  and  staterooms  are  located  in  the  midship 
section,  where  but  little  motion  is  felt. 

No  Cattle,  Sheep,  or  Pigs  carried. 
Rates  of  Passage  as  low  as  by  any  first-class  line. 
For  inspection  of  plans,  rates  of  passage,  etc.,  api^Jy  at 
the  Company's  Offices,  37  Broadway,  New  York. 

R.    J.    CORTIS,  Agent. 


C.  L.  BARTLETT  &  CO.,  Agents  for  Boston. 
BARRITT  &  CATTELL,  Agents  for  Philadelphia. 
A.  LAGERGREN,  General  Western  Agent,  Chicago. 


Fine  Art  in  Jewelry. 


w. 


i^.w^ 


HREE  centuries  ago  the  Jewelers  of  Europe 
were  Artists  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and 
Artists  of  such  taste  and  skill  that  their  works 
which  have  come  down  to  us  now  command 
prices  as  utterly  dfsproportionate  to  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  precious  substances  of  which  they 
are  made  as  the  prices  paid  for  the  best  works 
of  the  Sculptor  in  bronze  and  marble  are  to  the 
intrinsic  value  of  the  materials  out  of  which 
those  works  are  hewn  or  moulded.  Many  such 
Artists  bequeathed  legacies,  since  enormously 
increased  in  value,  to  the  Goldsmiths'  Company 
for  the  purpose  of  keeping  alive  their  art,  and 
the  enlightened  public  of  London  are  now  be- 
ginning to  insist  that  these  endowments  shall  be 
put  to  their  legitimate  use.  We  have  no  Gold- 
smiths' Company  in  New  York,  but  an  hour 
spent  in  such  an  establishment  as  that  of  Mr. 
THEODORE  B.  STARR,  206  Fifth  Avenue, 
in  this  city,  will  throw  a  great  deal  of  light,  for 
those  who  have  eves  to  see,  on  the  possible  im- 
portance, hitherto'  almost  unappreciated  among 
ourselves,  of  the  cesthetic  aspects  of  the  beauti- 
ful industry  bv  which  that  great  corporation  has 
been  built  up  in  the  mother  country.  Mr.  Starr 
has  devoted  himself  steadily  and  successfully 
now  for  nearlv  twentv  years  to  artistic  work  in 
Jewelry,  and  the  display  which  he  now  makes  of 
such  work  really  deserves  to  rank  among  the 
the  most  interesting  and  instructive  of  our 
existing  art  collections.  In  the  choice 
and  conservation  of  the  more  brilliant 
gems — for  there  is  an  art  in  conserving 
as  well  as  detecting  the  special  perfec- 
tion of  special  gems  as  respects  alike 
their  surfaces,  their  crystallization, 
and  their  color — Mr,  Starr  shows  the 
taste  and  training  of  an  Artist,  not 
less  than  in  the  skill  and  judgment 
with  which  he  combines  and  sets  such 
gems. — New  York  ^VoRLD. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL 


HINTS,  ADVICE,  AI(D  SUGGESTIONS 

TO  TRAVELERS 

BY 

LAND  AND  SEA 

ALL  OVER  THE  GLOBE. 

BY 

THOMAS  W.  KNOX, 

Author   of   "Camp-Fire    and    Cotton-Field,"    "Overland 

Through  Asia,"  "  Underground,"   "  Backsheesh," 

"John,"  "The  Boy  Travelers  in  the 

Far  East,"  Etc. 


NEW  YORK: 

CHARLES  T.  DILLINGHAM. 

BOSTON: 

LEE  AND  SHEPARD. 

LONDON    AND    GENEVA 

THE  AMERICAN  EXCHANGE  IN  EUROPE. 

1881. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  1880,  by 

THOMAS  W.  KXOX, 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 

All  rights  of  translation  and  foreign  publication  are 
reserved. 


STACK       l^LE 
ANNEX       m 

G 

-^  pi 
lUJ 


To  ALL  Travelers  on  Land  and  Sea, 

THIS  VOLUME 
IS  SYMPATHETICALLY  INSCRIBED. 


PREFACE. 


In  preparing  this  volume  for  the  press  the  author  of 
"  How  to  Travel "  has  endeavored  to  supply  a  want  whose 
existence  has  long  been  apparent  to  him.  Having  jour- 
neyed somewhat  over  the  earth  he  is  frequently  consulted 
by  friends  and  acquaintances  who  are  about  to  travel,  and 
wish  to  know  what  to  do  before  setting  out  on  their 
undertakings,  and  how  to  meet  the  various  perplexities 
that  are  sure  to  arise.  In  preparing  this  book  he  has 
answered  a  great  many  interrogatories  that  have  been 
addressed  to  him  in  person,  and  if  the  manner  of  his 
response  should  be  considered  didactic,  he  begs  the 
reader  to  remember  that  the  author  is  endeavoring  to 
meet  the  questions  of  the  would-be  traveler,  and,  there- 
fore, addresses  him  in  the  second  person.  As  nearly  as 
possible  he  has  embodied  in  "  How  to  Travel "  as  much 
information  as  could  be  wrung  from  him  by  a  vigorous 
and  thorough  interrogation  of  a  couple  of  long  winter 
evenings,  conducted  by  an  inquisitive  couple  who  were 
about  starting  on  a  journey  around  the  world  and  up  and 
down  its  surface. 

With  the  changes  that  are  constantly  going  on,  some 
of  the  information  here  given  may  be  found  slightly  inac- 


6  PREFACE. 

curate,  but  it  is  hoped  that  instances  of  this  sort  will  be 
rare.  Prices  of  hotels,  steamships,  railroads,  and  the  like 
are  subject  to  alteration,  and  consequently  no  absolute 
rule  can  be  laid  down.  But  the  author  believes  that  in 
the  instances  where  his  figures  may  be  found  astray  they 
are  so  near  the  mark  that  they  will  prove  of  material 
assistance  to  the  traveler. 

As  the  author  is  neither  a  lady  nor  a  lawyer,  he  has 
found  it  desirable  to  invoke  the  aid  of  those  important 
members  of  society  in  the  preparation  of  the  book.  A 
reference  to  the  table  of  contents  will  show  the  assistance 
they  have  given  him,  the  one  in  a  chapter  of  "  Special 
Advice  to  Ladies  "  and  the  other  in  "  Legal  Rights  of 
Travelers."  All  other  parts  of  the  book  are  of  his  own 
production  and  the  results  of  his  experience  in  travel,  cov- 
ering a  period  of  more  than  20  years  and  embracing 
many  lands  and  seas. 

With  this  explanatory  preface,  and  trusting  that  the 
volume  will  be  a  sufficient  apology  for  its  existence,  the 
author  delivers  it  to  the  hands  of  the  traveling  public, 
and  hopes  for  a  verdict  in  its  favor. 

T.  W.  K. 

New  York,  February',  1881. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

I.    General  Advice  Applicable  to  all  Kinds  of  Travel,  9 

Railway  Travel  in  the  United  States  and  Canadas,  20 

American  Steamboat  Travel,         -       -        -        -  28 

Sea  and  Ocean  Travel,  -----        •  37 

Sea  Sickness  and  How  to  Avoid  it,        -        -        -  48 

Special  Advice  to  Ladies,  by  a  Lady,     •        -        -  55 

Daily  Life  at  Sea, 64 

Going  on  Shore  —  Hotels,      -        ...        -  76 

The  System  of  Fees,      ------  87 

English  and  Continental  Money,            -        .       -  102 

Languages  and  Couriers,        -        .        .        -        -  108 

Railway  Traveling  on  the  Continent,     -        -        -  118 

Steamboat  Traveling  in  Europe,    -        -        -        -  133 

Sea-going  Steamers  in  European  Waters,  -  -  139 
Sea  and  Ocean  Steamers  in  Various  Parts  of  the 

World,        _-..---.  147 

Travel  by  Stage-Coach,  Diligence,  and  Post,         -  155 

Traveling  with  Camels  and  Elephants,           -        -  167 

Traveling  with  Reindeer  and  Dogs,  -  -  -  174 
Traveling  with  Man  power  —^  Palankeens,  Jinriki- 

shas,  and  Sedan  Chairs,      -        -       -       •        -179 

Pedestrian  Traveling  —  Mountain  Climbing,  -  i86 
Traveling  Without   Money  —  Round    the  World 


n. 

IIL 
IV. 
V. 
VL 
VIL 

vin. 

IX. 
X. 

XI. 
XII. 

xm. 

XIV. 
XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 
XXI. 


for  $50, 


XXII.  Skeleton  Tours  for  America  and  Europe, 

XXIII.  )  General  Directions    for    a    Journey   Round    the 

XXIV.  )      World,  with  Routes,  Distances,  etc.,  etc., 
XXV.    Legal  Rights  of  Travelers,  by  a  Lawj'er, 

XXVI.    Wilderness  and  Frontier  Travel,  - 


193 
201 

207 
230 
242 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL    ADVICE    APPLICABLE   TO   ALL 
KINDS    OF    TRAVEL. 

There  is  an  old  saying  of  unknown  origin  that  a  light 
heart  and  a  thin  pair  of  trowsers  are  the  principal  requi- 
sites for  a  journey.  The  proper  texture  of  one's  gar- 
ments depends  largely  on  his  route  of  travel  and  the 
difficulties  to  be  encountered ;  thin  ones  would  be  desira- 
ble in  hot  countries  and  for  lounging  on  the  deck  of  a 
ship  in  low  latitudes,  while  they  w^ould  be  eminently  out 
of  place  in  the  region  of  the  north  pole  or  in  the  rough 
traveling  of  the  wilderness.  But  no  one  will  deny  that  a 
light  heart  has  much  to  do  with  the  pleasure  of  travel, 
and  the  man  who  can  be  serene  under  all  circumstances, 
who  laughs  at  mishaps,  and  accepts  every  situation  with  a 
smile  of  content,  or  at  least  with  a  feeling  of  resignation, 
is  the  model  voyager.  For  him  the  miles  go  by  as  on  the 
wings  of  a  bird,  while  to  the  grumbler  and  misanthrope 
they  are  weighted  with  lead.  The  former  comes  back 
from  his  wanderings  refreshed  and  instructed  while  the 
latter  is  no  better  in  mind  and  body  than  when  setting  out 
on  his  journey.  For  your  own  comfort  and  happiness, 
and  your  own  mental  and  physical  advantage,  start  on 
your  journey  with  a  determination  to  see  the  bright  side 
of  everything  and  to  endure  as  cheerfully  as  possible  the 
jolts  and  buffetings  and  petty  disappointments  that  are 
sure  to  be  your  lot.  And  in  the  same  proportion  that  a 
light  heart  makes  you  better  for  yourself  it  makes  you 


10  HOW  TO  tra\':el, 

better  and  more  agreeable  for  those  who  may  be  traveling 
with  you. 

If  you  have  been  reared  in  the  belief  that  your  own 
country,  or  your  own  state,  town,  or  hamlet,  contains  all 
that  is  good  in  the  world,  whether  of  moral  excellence, 
mental  development,  or  mechanical  skill,  you  must  pre- 
pare to  eradicate  that  belief  at  an  early  date.*  That  you 
and  yours  have  the  best  and  are  the  best  we  will  not  for 
a  moment  deny,  but  when  you  attempt  to  claim  every- 
thing you  claim  too  much.  To  an  obser\-ant  and  thought- 
ful individual  the  invariable  effect  of  travel  is  to  teach 
respect  for  the  opinions,  the  faith,  or  the  ways  of  others, 
and  to  convince  him  that  other  civilizations  than  his  own 
are  worthy  of  consideration.  At  the  same  time  he  will 
find  his  love  for  his  native  land  as  strong  as  ever  and  his 
admiration  for  his  own  institutions  as  warm  as  on  the 
day  of  his  departure.  An  old  traveler  once  said  :  "  I  have 
found  good  among  every  people,  and  even  where  there 
was  much  to  condemn  there  was  much  to  admire.  I  have 
never  returned  from  a  journey  without  an  increased 
respect  for  the  countries  I  have  visited  and  a  greater 
regard  for  my  own  land  than  ever  before.  The  intelli- 
gent traveler  will  certainly  be  a  true  patriot." 

So  much  for  the  mental  conditions  of  travel.  We  will 
come  now  to  the  practical  and  tangible  needs  of  locomo- 
tion. 

Money  is  the  first  of  these  things.  It  is  true  that  one 
can  travel  without  money,  and  in  a  later  chapter  we  will 
see  how  it  may  be  accomplished ;  for  the  present  we  will 
look  upon  money  as  a  requisite. 

Never  carry  a  large  amount  of  cash  about  your  person 
or  in  your  baggage.  A  letter  of  credit,  procurable  at  any 
banker's,  is  far  better  than  ready  money,  as  its  loss  causes 
nothing  more  than  temporary  inconvenience.     It  is  best 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  11 

not  to  lose  it  at  all ;  but,  in  case  of  its  disappearance,  pay- 
ment may  be  stopped  and  the  finder  or  thief  can  derive  no 
benefit  from  its  possession.  The  usual  form  of  a  letter  of 
credit  is  about  as  follows  : 

"  New  York,  i8    . 

"  To  our  correspondents : 

"  We  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  ***** 
the  bearer  of  this  letter,  whose  signature  you  will  find  in 
the  margin.  We  beg  you  to  honor  his  drafts  to  the 
amount  of  *  *  *  *  *  pounds  sterling  upon  our  London 
house.  All  deductions  and  commissions  to  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  bearer. 

"  We  have  the  honor  to  remain,  gentlemen, 
"  Very  truly  yours, 

*******  ^» 

Some  banking-houses  have  their  letters  printed  in 
French  instead  of  English,  but  the  substance  is  the  same. 
The  amount  is  usually  expressed  in  pounds  sterling,  and 
drafts  are  made  payable  in  London ;  but  if  the  traveler  is 
going  directly  to  the  continent  of  Europe,  some  of  the 
bankers  will  give  him,  if  he  desires  it,  a  letter  on  Paris 
and  state  the  amount  in  francs.  Sterling  credits  are  gen- 
erally the  best  to  carry,  no  matter  what  country  you  may 
be  visiting,  as  London  is  the  money  centre  of  the  world, 
and  there  is  never  any  difficulty  in  ascertaining  the  rate  of 
exchange  upon  that  great  city.  The  traveling  letter  of 
credit  is  printed  on  the  front  of  a  four-page  sheet,  letter 
size ;  the  second  page  is  left  blank  for  the  endorsement  of 
the  amounts  drawn,  and  the  third  and  fourth  pages  con- 
tain a  list  of  bankers  in  all  the  principal  cities  that  the 
voyager  is  likely  to  visit.  Any  respectable  banker,  even  if 
not  named  on  the  printed  list,  will  generally  cash  a  letter 
of  credit ;  but  it  is  advisable  to  adhere  as  much  as  possi- 


12  HOW  TO  TRA'V'EL. 

ble  to  the  correspondents  of  the  establishment  that  issued 
the  document. 

The  traveler  should  only  draw  at  one  time  sufficient 
money  to  last  him  for  a  few  days,  or  till  he  reaches  a  con- 
venient place  for  making  another  draft.  A  week's  supply 
of  cash  is  usually  sufficient  for  a  single  draft ;  but,  of 
course,  no  absolute  rule  can  be  laid  down. 

Another  form  of  traveling  credit  is  in  the  shape  of  cir- 
cular notes,  which  are  issued  by  some  bankers,  though  not 
by  all.  They  are  for  various  amounts — five,  ten,  twenty, 
fifty,  or  a  hundred  pounds — and  are  accompanied  by  a 
letter  of  identification  which  bears  the  signature  of  the 
holder.  The  notes  are  useless  without  the  letter,  and  the 
letter  without  the  notes,  and  the  traveler  is  advised  to 
carry  them  apart  from  each  other.  The  advantage  of  this 
kind  of  credit  is  that  you  can  have  the  notes  cashed  at  a 
hotel  or  at  any  large  shop  where  you  may  be  making  pur- 
chases, and  you  may  have  remittances  follow  you  from 
time  to  time  in  circular  notes,  the  same  letter  of  identifi- 
cation answering  for  all.  The  disadvantage  is  that  they 
are  bulky,  and  consequently  inconvenient  to  carry,  and 
the  possession  of  two  parcels  in  place  of  one,  in  different 
parts  of  your  baggage,  doubles  the  chances  of  loss.  For 
a  long  journey  where  a  considerable  amount  is  to  be  car- 
ried, or  where  remittances  are  to  follow,  I  would  recom- 
mend that  part  of  the  funds  should  be  in  a  letter  of  credit, 
and  part  in  circular  notes  with  an  identification. 

For  domestic  traveling,  bankers'  drafts  and  credits  can 
always  be  procured ;  but  American  bankers  are  much 
more  stringent  about  identifications  than  are  those  of  Eu- 
rope, and  the  traveler  must  be  sure  that  he  can  be  proper- 
ly identified  wherever  he  is  going,  or  he  may  experience 
difficulty  in  obtaining  his  cash.  An  obliging  banker  has 
been  known  to  pay  a  draft  to  an  individual  who  had  no  other 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  13 

identification  than  his  name  written  on  his  under-clothing 
or  his  initials  tattooed  on  his  arm.  But  such  instances  are 
rare,  and  the  mone3f-changer  is  very  likely  to  be  obdurate, 
though  polite.  It  is  said  that  a  Boston  banker  once 
cashed  a  check  payable  to  the  order  of  Peter  Bean,  under 
the  following  circumstances  : — The  bearer  said  he  knew 
nobody  in  the  city,  but  he  proved  his  identity  by  ripping 
open  the  lining  of  his  coat-collar  and  revealing  a  pea  and 
a  bean,  securely  stowed  away.  "  That's  my  name,"  said 
he,  "  P.  Bean ;  and  that's  the  way  I  mark  my  coats."  But 
all  names  cannot  be  written  with  the  products  of  the  gar- 
den, and  Mr.  Bean  is  not  likely  to  have  many  imitators. 

Your  letters  can  be  sent  to  the  care  of  any  banker  on 
whom  your  credits  are  drawn,  and  they  will  be  forwarded 
by  him  as  you  may  direct.  This  is  the  usual  custom  with 
European  travelers,  and  there  is  rarely  any  cause  for 
complaint. 

When  traveling,  always  be  careful  to  have  plenty  of 
small  change  in  your  pockets,  and  be  prepared  to  pay  all 
obligations,  especially  the  smallest,  in  their  exact  amount. 
The  vast  horde  of  cabmen,  porters,  guides,  waiters,  and 
all  classes  of  people  who  render  you  services,  or  pretend 
to  have  done  so,  are  proverbially  without  change,  and  if 
you  cannot  tender  the  exact  sum  due  them  you  are  pretty 
certain  to  overpay  them.  Even  where  they  admit  that 
they  are  possessed  of  small  coin,  they  generally  manage  so 
as  to  mulct  you  in  something  by  having  their  change  give 
out  before  the  proper  return  is  reached.  The  New  York 
hackman  to  whom  you  hand  a  five-dollar  bill  for  him  to 
deduct  his  fare  of  two  dollars  will  usually  discover  that  he 
has  only  two  dollars,  or  perhaps  two  and  a  half,  in  his 
possession ;  and  the  London  cabman  will  play  the  same 
trick  when  you  ask  him  to  take  half  a  crown  from  a  five- 
shilling  piece.     All  over  the  world  you  will  find  it  the 


14  HOW   TO  TliAYEL. 

same.  There  may  be  an  occasional  exception,  but  it  only 
proves  the  rule.  And  when  you  enter  the  great  field  of 
gratuities,  you  will  find  that  the  absence  of  small  change 
will  cost  you  heavily.  Many  a  man  has  given  a  shilling 
where  a  sixpence  was  quite  sufficient,  and  all  that  was  ex- 
pected ;  but  he  did  not  have  the  sixpence  in  his  pocket, 
and  the  shilling  had  to  go. 

Have  as  little  baggage  as  the  circumstances  will  justify. 
Don't  carry  anything  on  the  principle  of  Mrs.  Toodles, 
that  it  may  come  handy  some  time,  but  take  onl;f  what  you 
know  to  be  absolutely  necessar)'.  No  rule  can  be  laid 
down,  and  each  person  must  judge  for  himself.  For  a 
man,  a  suit  of  clothes  in  addition  to  the  one  he  wears  is 
sufficient  for  outward  adornment,  unless  he  is  "  in  society," 
and  expects  to  dine,  attend  parties,  or  make  fashionable 
visits.  In  the  latter  case  a  dress-suit  is  indispensable,  and 
in  European  travel  it  is  generally  well  to  have  a  dress-suit 
along,  since  there  are  many  public  ceremonies  w'here  the 
wearer  of  ordinary-  clothing  is  not  admitted.  For  ladies, 
a  traveling-dress,  a  walking-dress,  and  a  black  silk  dress 
may  be  considered  the  minimum.  The  black  silk  garment 
corresponds  to  the  masculine  dress-suit,  but  it  comes  in 
use  on  many  occasions  where  the  latter  is  not  demanded. 
The  quantity  of  under-clothing  will  depend  largely  on  per- 
sonal habits.  It  should  never  be  less  than  to  cause  no 
inconvenience  in  a  week's  absence  of  the  laundress,  and  if 
a  long  voyage  is  to  be  made  by  steamship  the  supply 
should  be  proportionally  increased.  It  is  a  good  rule 
never  to  omit  an  opportunity  of  giving  your  soiled  gar- 
ments to  be  washed,  even  if  only  a  day  or  two  has  elapsed 
since  your  last  employment  of  the  laundress.  In  all  civ- 
ilized parts  of  the  world  where  there  is  an  appreciable 
volume  of  travel,  washing  is  done  in  from  twenty-four  to 
forty-eight  hours,  but  away  from  the  routes  you  must 
count  on  a  week,  or  four  or  five  davs  at  least 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL.  15 

A  single  trunk  of  moderate  size  will  contain  all  that  is 
needed  for  the  actual  traveling  wants  of  a  reasonable  be- 
ing, of  either  sex,  except  on  a  long  journey.  To  this  add  \ 
a  hand-satchel  to  hold  your  toilet  articles,  and  any  little 
odds  and  ends  of  reading  matter,  or  other  personal  com- 
forts. Some  travelers  are  content  with  such  toilet  materi- 
als as  they  find  in  hotels,  and  do  not  object  to  a  public 
comb  or  hair-brush ;  but  the  majority  of  individuals  are  '. 
more  fastidious.  In  most  hotels  in  America,  soap  is  sup- 
plied in  private  rooms  ;  but  in  Europe  the  traveler  must 
provide  his  own. 

Endeavor  as  much  as  possible  to  avoid  being  in  a  hurry. 
Go  to  your  train,  boat,  ship,  diligence,  or  other  convey- 
ance, in  ample  season,  so  that  all  needed  arrangements 
can  be  made  without  pressure  for  want  of  time.  You  will 
save  money  and  temper  by  adopting  this  rule. 

Respect  the  rights  of  other  travelers,  and  by  so  doing 
you  will  lead  them  to  respect  yours.  Keep  your  disposi- 
tion as  unruffled  as  possible  at  all  times,  and  even  when 
angry  inside  don't  let  the  anger  come  to  the  surface.  If 
you  find  yourself  imposed  upon  by  any  official  or  employe 
of  railway  or  steamer,  state  your  views  quietly  but  firmly, 
and,  if  he  declines  to  redress  the  wrong,  ask  him  to  be 
kind  enough  to  call  his  superior.  If  the  latter  is  inacces-  ; 
sible,  ask,  in  the  same  polite  tone,  for  his  address,  and  the  ' 
chances  are  ten  to  one  that  your  cause  of  complaint  will 
be  removed  without  more  discussion. 

Expenses  may  be  roughly  set  down  at  five  dollars  a  day, 
not  including  railway  or  other  fares,  and  not  including 
luxuries  of  any  kind.  Ordinary  hotel  expenses  will  be  not 
be  far  from  three  dollars  a  day,  leaving  two  dollars  for  inci- 
dentals. Most  persons  would  be  likely  to  exceed  rather 
than  fall  below  this  figure,  and  in  the  United  States  they 
will  find  that  money  melts  away  more  rapidly  than  in  Eu- 


16  now  TO  TRA^TilL. 

rope.  England  is  at  least  twenty-five  per  cent,  dearer 
than  the  continental  countries,  and  only  a  trifle  cheaper 
than  America.  The  traveler  who  is  not  economical  on  the 
one  hand  and  not  wasteful  on  the  other  can  get  along  very 
well  on  six  dollars  a  day  in  England  or  America,  and  five 
dollars  on  the  continent,  with  the  exception  of  Spain  and 
Russia,  which  are  dearer  than  Germany,  France,  Italy,  or 
Switzerland.  The  usual  allowance  to  commercial  travel- 
ers for  their  expenses,  exclusive  of  railway  fares,  is  one 
pound  sterling  daily  in  England,  and  twenty  francs  on  the 
continent ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  most  of  them  man- 
age to  keep  within  their  allowances. 

A  party  o^  two  or  more  will  travel  somewhat  cheaper 
than  the  same  number  of  individuals  alone,  for  the  reason 
that  many  items  are  no  more  for  two  than  for  one.  In- 
cluding all  the  expenses  of  travel — railways,  steamships, 
hotels,  carriages,  fees,  and  the  like — an  extended  journey 
may  be  made  for  ten  dollars  a  day  in  England  and  Europe, 
and  twelve  dollars  for  the  United  States.  This  allows  for 
first-class  places  on  all  conveyances,  and  good  rooms  at 
good  hotels — requires  no  rigid  economy,  and  permits  no 
extravagance.  For  a  journey  around  the  world,  to  occupy 
ten  or  twelve  months,  and  visiting  Japan,  China,  Siam, 
Java,  India,  Egypt,  Italy,  France,  and  England,  together 
with  the  run  across  the  American  continent,  the  cost  will 
be  about  four  or  five  thousand  dollars.  But,  as  before 
stated,  there  can  be  no  fixed  rule,  and  the  amount  of  ex- 
penditure depends  largely  upon  the  tastes  and  habits  of 
the  traveler  and  the  amount  of  money  at  his  disposal. 
More  will  be  said  on  this  topic  in  subsequent  pages. 

Whenever  you  go  out  of  your  own  country  carry  a  pass- 
port. It  may  not  be  needed,  as  passports  are  now 
demanded  in  very  few  countries,  but  it  is  a  good  thing  to 
have  along,  since  it  serves  as  an  identification  in  case  of 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL.  17 

trouble  with  the  authorities,  and  is  useful  in  civil  actions 
or  where  the  assistance  of  your  consul  may  be  required. 
In  many  countries  the  post-office  employes  refuse  to 
deliver  registered  letters  to  a  stranger  except  on  presenta- 
tion of  his  passport,  and  the  document  will  occasionally 
be  found  useful  at  the  banker's.  An  old  frontiersman 
once  said  of  the  revolver  which  he  habitually  carried, 
"  You  don't  need  it  often ;  perhaps  may  never  need  it  at 
all,  but  when  you  do  want  it  you  want  it  awful  bad,  I  tell 
you."     The  same  may  be  said  of  the  passport. 

Passports  may  be  procured  through  a  lawyer  or  notary 
public,  and  a  single  passport  is  sufficient  for  a  family. 
They  may  also  be  obtained  at  any  United  States  legation 
abroad  on  presentation  of  proofs  of  citizenship.  The 
government  fee  for  a  passport  is  five  dollars. 

At  the  custom-house,  whatever  its  nationality,  be  as 
civil  as  possible  and  anticipate  the  desires  of  the  officials. 
They  have  a  duty  to  perform,  and  if  you  facilitate  their 
labors  the  chances  are  they  will  appreciate  the  politeness 
and  let  you  off  as  easily  as  they  can  consistently.  Unlock 
your  trunk  or  valise,  or  offer  to  do  so,  before  they  ask 
you,  and  open  the  various  compartments  immediately. 
Declare  anything  that  may  be  liable  to  duty  and  call 
attention  to  it,  and  conduct  yourself  generally  as  though 
it  was  one  of  the  delights  of  your  life  to  pass  a  custom- 
house examination.  If  you  are  inclined  to  defraud  the 
revenue,  do  it  gracefully  and  conceal  your  contraband 
articles  so  that  it  will  not  be  easy  to  find  them  yourself 
after  you  are  out  of  reach  of  the  officials.  Honesty  is, 
however,  the  best  policy  in  this  business,  and  the  smug- 
gler is  just  as  much  a  violator  of  the  law  as  a  burglar. 

The  ways  of  the  custom-house  may  sometimes  be 
smoothed  by  a  numismatic  application  to  the  hand  of  the 
inspector,  but  it  is  not  altogether  a  safe  operation.     In 


18  nO^'   TO   TR.U-EL. 

Turkey,  Eg}-pt,  Syria,  and  other  Moslem  countries  bribery 
is  considered  a  legitimate  and  honorable  transaction,  and 
the  customs  officer  looks  at  the  outside  of  your  trunk  and 
extends  his  open  hand  for  your  money  with  as  little 
attempt  at  concealment  as  does  the  cabman  when  he  asks 
for  your  fare.  At  the  Italian  Dogana  fees  are  taken  on 
the  sly,  but  you  may  sometimes  make  a  mistake  and  hit 
the  wrong  man,  and  the  same  is  the  case  in  Spain  and 
Russia.  In  the  other  continental  countries  generally,  and 
in  England  and  the  United  States,  fee-taking  at  the  cus- 
tom-house is  a  pretty  rare  exception,  and  the  traveler  will 
do  far  better  to  avoid  crooked  ways  than  to  attempt  them. 
Instances  have  been  known  of  American  inspectors  who 
went  straight  to  the  point  and  suggested  that  a  five-dollar 
bill  would  make  things  easy,  and  when  it  was  not  forth- 
coming they  gave  all  the  trouble  in  their  power.  Happily 
such  occurrences  are  rare,  and  if  customs  officials  are 
occasionally  dishonest  it  should  be  remembered  that  they 
are  no  worse  than  those  who  encourage  them  to  be  so. 
A  bribe,  like  a  bargain,  requires  two  persons  for  its  con- 
summation, and  of  this  twain  the  officer  is  but  one. 

Before  starting  on  any  journey  buy  a  copy  of  "  How  to 
Travel,"  and  if  you  find  the  book  useful  be  kind  enough 
to  recommend  it  to  your  friends  and  acquaintances.  Find 
the  best  guide-books  for  the  region  you  are  to  visit  and 
study  them  carefully ;  if  you  make  a  mistake  and  get  hold 
of  a  poor  one,  remember  that  even  a  poor  guide-book  is 
better  than  none  at  all,  and  you  will  generally  obtain  the 
worth  of  your  money  from  it. 

For  the  United  States  Osgood's  and  Appleton's  guides 
ar&  tQ  be  recommended,  though  there  are  others  that 
contain  a  great  deal  of  information.  The  name  of  guide- 
books for  the  trans-continental  journey  is  legion ;  all  have 
their  merits  and  their  faults,  and  as  they  are  to  be  found 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  19 

at  all  the  news-stands  on  the  great  railway  lines  the 
tourist  can  choose  for  himself. 

For  Europe  the  principal  guide-books  are  those  of 
Murray  and  Baedeker.  Baedeker's  books  are  the  most 
convenient,  and  contain  more  practical  information  than 
their  English  rival ;  and  there  are  probably  ten  copies  of 
Baedeker  sold  to  one  of  Murray.  Where  a  traveler 
wishes  to  learn  about  the  hotels,  railways,  cabs,  roads, 
and  other  things  of  every-day  life,  Baedeker  is  his  friend, 
but  where  he  desires  a  long  historical  sketch,  or  perhaps 
a  dissertation  on  art,  he  will  choose  Murray.  It  is  well  to 
have  both  these  guides,  as  the  one  supplies  oftentimes 
what  the  other  lacks.  Harper's  and  Appleton's  guide 
books  to  Europe  and  the  East,  each  in  three  volumes,  are 
popular  with  many  Americans,  on  account  of  their  com- 
pactness. 

Syria,  Palestine,  and  Egypt  are  also  covered  by  both 
Baedeker  and  Murray,  and  the  latter  has  a  guide  to  India, 
but  it  has  not  been  revised  for  a  long  time.  There  are  no 
complete  guide-books  to  China,  Japan,  and  the  Far  East 
generally,  and  the  tourist  must  rely  on  general  works  of 
history  and  travel.  In  this  connection  the  writer  respect- 
fully calls  attention  to  his  volumes,  named  on  the  title- 
page  of  this  work. 


CHAPTER  II. 

RAILWAY  TRAVEL  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES 
AND  CANADAS. 

Travel  in  the  United  States  and  Canada  virtually  com. 
prises  but  two  kinds  of  conveyance,  the  railway  and  the 
steamboat.  Once  the  stage-coach  was  an  American  fea- 
ture, and  it  still  remains  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  but 
the  rapid  advance  of  the  railway  has  almost  swept  it  out 
of  existence,  and  where  it  still  lingers  it  is  but  the  shadow 
of  its  former  self.  Long  ago  we  had  the  canal-boat,  a 
slow  but  remarkably  safe  mode  of  locomotion ;  it  could 
not  leave  the  track  or  be  overturned,  nor  could  it  explode  ; 
The  water  beneath  it  was  so  shallow  that  it  could  not 
sink,  and  in  case  it  took  fire  you  had  only  to  step  ashore 
and  be  out  of  danger.  But  the  canal-boat  is  a  thing  of 
the  past,  with  here  and  there  an  exception  still  more  rare 
than  that  of  the  stage-coach.  We  are  a  progressive 
people,  and  when  the  quicker  mode  of  travel  was 
developed  the  old  was  forgotten  and  sent  into  obscurity. 
Until  within  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  years  we  had  but 
a  single  class  of  passenger  cars  in  America,  as  the  emi- 
grant trains  on  a  few  of  the  trunk  lines  were  hardly  to  be 
considered  by  travelers,  but  the  invention  of  the  palace 
and  sleeping-coaches  (generally  coupled  with  the  name  of 
Pullman,  their  inventor),  has  given  us  two  classes  which 
are  virtually  as  distinct  as  are  the  first  and  second  of  a 
>  continental  railway.     Hardly  a  train  runs  on  any  road  of 

(20) 


now  TO   TRAVEL.  21 

consequence  without  a  Pullman  car  attached,  and  a  seat 
may  be  had  in  this  vehicle  on  payment  of  an  extra  fee. 
There  is  the  parlor  car  for  day  use  only,  but  the  *'  sleeper  " 
is  intended  for  both  day  and  night.  By  the  magic  wand 
of  a  colored  porter  the  seats  are  converted  into  comfort- 
able beds,  and  the  traveler  may  be  whirled  along  at  the 
rate  of  thirty  miles  an  hour,  and  all  the  while  he  sleeps  as 
calmly  as  at  home.  Toilet-rooms  are  at  the  ends  of  every 
carriage,  one  for  gentlemen  and  the  other  for  ladies, 
where  you  may  perform  your  ablutions  and  put  your  hair 
in  shape,  so  as  to  present  as  creditable  an  appearance  as 
when  starting  on  your  journey.  That  "  necessity  is  the 
mother  of  invention  "  is  well  exemplified  in  the  history 
of  the  Pullman  car.  The  great  distances  to  be  traveled 
in  America  called  for  something  which  should  soften  the 
asperities  of  sitting  in  an  ordinary  seat  by  night  as  well  as 
by  ^lay.  Step  by  step  the  work  went  on,  till  finally  we 
have  the  perfection  of  railway  travel. 

The  expense  of  a  place  in  a  parlor  or  sleeping-car  on 
American  railways  varies  from  two  to  three  dollars  for 
twenty-four  hours,  with  the  addition  of  a  fee  to  the  porter 
of  25  cents  a  day.  For  this  he  looks  after  your  personal 
needs,  polishes  your  boots,  and  opens  or  closes  your  bed 
when  you  desire  it.  There  has  been  considerable  mystery 
relative  to  the  sleeping  hours  of  a  porter  in  a  palace  car 
on  long  routes,  as  he  appears  to  be  on  duty  all  the  time 
from  one  day's  beginning  to  another.  It  is  suspected  that 
he  belongs  to  a  race  apart  from  the  rest  of  humanity,  and 
is  so  constituted  that  he  never  sleeps.  The  tickets  for 
the  palace  car  are  not  usually  sold  at  the  same  place  as 
the  regular  passenger  tickets,  but  at  a  separate  window  or 
in  an  office  by  itself.  It  is  well  to  secure  your  place  in 
advance,  as  the  cars  are  often  crowded  and  you  may 
arrive  at  a  station  to  start  on  a  long  journey  and  find  that 


23  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

every  bed  has  been  sold.  Places  may  be  secured  hours 
and  days  ahead,  and  the  earlier  you  take  them  the  better 
choice  do  you  have.  The  tickets  for  the  car  are  collected 
by  a  conductor,  and  if  any  places  are  unsecured  he  can 
sell  them  to  those  who  apply  for  them. 

Never  buy  your  tickets,  either  for  passage  or  for  a  place 
in  a  palace  car,  of  strangers  in  the  street  or  of  chance 
"runners."  Such  tickets  may  be  good,  but  the  proba- 
bilities are  not  in  their  favor,  while  there  can  be  no  doubt 
about  the  tickets  at  the  regular  offices.  Where  there  are 
rival  routes  it  is  often  difficult  to  get  the  exact  facts  con- 
cerning them,  as  the  runners  are  apt  to  be  inexact  about 
the  merits  of  their  own  lines  or  the  demerits  of  others. 
They  have  been  known  to  state  that  the  track  of  a  rival 
railway  had  been  torn  up  and  sold  for  old  iron  in  order 
that  a  dividend  might  be  declared  to  the  stockholders,  and 
the  steamboat  agent  who  told  a  timid  old  lady  that  his 
company  had  removed  all  the  boilers  from  their  boats,  so 
as  to  destroy  the  possibility  of  an  explosion,  is  not  with- 
out imitators. 

Beware  of  playing  cards  with  strangers  who  wish  to 
start  a  friendly  game  of  euchre  which  is  subsequently 
changed  to  draw-poker  or  some  other  seductive  and  costly 
amusement.  This  advice  is  superfluous  in  case  you  are 
in  the  gambling  line  yourself,  and  confident  that  you  can 
"  get  away  "  with  any  adversary  you  may  be  pitted  against. 
Be  cautious,  however,  about  "  waking  up  the  wrong  pas- 
senger," as  not  unfrequently  happens  to  skilled  perform- 
ers with  cards. 

On  most  of  the  railways  each  passenger  has  an  allow- 
ance of  IOC  pounds  of  baggage,  but  it  is  never  weighed 
unless  the  amount  is  greatly  in  excess.  West  of  the 
Missouri  river  they  are  more  particular,  and  all  trunks 
must  pass  the  scales.     On  the  Pacific  railways  all   extra 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL,  23 

baggage  above  the  allowance  is  charged  for  at  a  certain 
rate  per  pound,  but  on  the  eastern  roads  the  extra  charge 
is  generally  for  the  trunk  or  box  without  much  regard  to 
its  weight.  On  most  of  the  eastern  roads  a  passenger  can 
take  a  single  trunk  without  extra  payment,  even  though  it 
may  rival  a  square  piano  in  size.  Sometimes  a  question 
about  extra  trunks  may  be  settled  by  a  fee  to  the  man  in 
charge  of  the  baggage-room  of  the  station  or  the  baggage- 
car  of  the  train.  The  passenger's  ticket  must  be  shown 
at  the  baggage-room,  where  a  metal  check  will  be  given  to 
the  place  of  destination.  The  check  secured,  the  traveler 
may  proceed  to  the  palace  or  other  car  of  the  train  and 
give  his  trunk  no  farther  consideration  till  he  nears  the 
place  to  which  it  is  checked. 

Baggage  expresses  exist  in  most  of  the  large  cities. 
They  undertake  to  deliver  your  impedimenta  on  payment 
of  a  fee  of  from  25  to  50  cents  for  each  parcel,  at  any 
hotel  or  private  residence  in  the  place,  on  the  surrender 
of  your  check.  If  you  are  in  a  hurry  and  must  have  your 
trunk  within  a  few  hours  after  your  arrival,  it  will  be 
unsafe  to  trust  to  the  baggage  express ;  the  agent  who 
passes  through  the  train  to  collect  the  checks  will  assure 
you  that  your  baggage  will  be  delivered  within  an  hour  of 
arrival,  but  if  you  ask  a  written  guarantee  to  that  effect  he 
will  be  pretty  sure  to  refuse  it,  and  admit  that  he  does 
not  know  when  the  delivery  will  take  place.  The  writer 
speaks  knowingly  and  feelingly  of  his  experience  with  bag- 
gage expresses  in  New  York ;  in  only  one  instance  in  a 
period  covering  more  than  twenty  years  has  a  baggage 
express  delivered  his  trunk  or  valise  in  the  time  promised 
by  the  agent,  and  he  has  been  compelled  to  wait  all  the 
v/ay  from  two  to  ten  hours  beyond  the  time  stipulated. 
On  one  occasion  a  trunk  that  was  promised  for  7  a.  m. 
was  delivered  at  S.30  r.  m.,  and  on  another  a  valise  prom- 


24  HOW   TO   TRAVEL. 

ised  for  2  P.  m.  did  not  reach  its  destination  till  ii  P.  M. 
and  the  driver  of  the  wagon  demanded  extra  payment  for 
night  delivery. 

Carriages  from  railway  stations  are  always  to  be  had, 
and  in  some  of  the  cities,  notably  in  Boston,  the  rates  are 
reasonable  and  honestly  stated,  and  the  service  is  good 
and  prompt.  In  New  York  very  little  can  be  said  in 
praise  of  the  carriage  system.,  as  the  drivers  are  inclined 
to  make  as  much  as  possible  out  of  the  stranger  within 
the  gates,  and  are  more  likely  to  overcharge  him  than  to 
state  the  proper  and  legal  fare.  Most  of  the  large  hotels 
have  their  owti  coaches  at  the  stations  on  arrival  of  the 
principal  trains,  not  only  in  New  York  but  in  other  cities, 
and  by  taking  one  of  these  coaches  the  traveler  will 
greatly  lessen  the  probabilities  of  being  defrauded.  If  he 
intends  to  take  a  carriage  from  the  station,  and  has  only 
ordinary  baggage,  he  will  not  give  his  checks  to  the 
express  agent,  but  will  hand  them  over  to  the  driver  whom 
he  engages. 

In  the  western  cities  there  is  an  omnibus  system  of  a 
very  satisfactory  character.  As  you  approach  a  city,  an 
agent  of  the  omnibus  company  (generally  called  a  Transfer 
Company)  passes  through  the  train,  and  interrogates  each 
passenger.  You  state  your  destination — whether  hotel, 
private  house,  or  another  railway  station — surrender  your 
baggage  check,  and  with  it  your  transfer  ticket,  if  you 
have  one  ;  or  if  not,  you  pay  a  fee  of  from  twenty-five  to 
fifty  cents.  The  agent  tells  you  the  number  or  letter  of 
the  omnibus  you  are  to  enter,  and  when  you  arrive  at  the 
station  you  find  the  vehicles  drawn  up  in  a  row  against 
the  platform.  Selecting  the  one  that  is  to  carry  you,  you 
enter  it,  and  in  a  little  while  it  moves  off,  followed  by  the 
wagon  that  holds  your  trunk.  You  are  taken  with  reason- 
able directness  to  your  destination,  the  omnibus   some- 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  25 

times  making  slight  detours  to  drop  passengers  along  its 
route.  The  same  vehicles  take  passengers  to  the  sta- 
tions, and,  by  leaving  notice  at  the  company's  office,  you 
can  be  called  for  in  any  part  of  the  city,  at  any  hour  you 
name. 

Most  of  the  American  cities  are  well  provided  with 
street  railways,  or  tramways,  and  with  cheap  omnibuses 
that  ply  along  the  principal  streets.  To  make  use  of 
these  to  advantage,  a  knowledge  of  the  city  is  necessary ; 
but  strangers  will  have  little  difficulty  in  securing  the 
proper  directions  by  applying  to  a  policeman.  Profes- 
sional guides  are  unknown  in  American  cities,  but  the 
services  of  a  bootblack  or  other  small  and  somewhat  rag- 
ged boy  can  generally  be  secured  to  put  the  traveler  on 
the  right  track. 

On  all  the  lines  of  railway  there  are  eating-stations, 
where  passengers  may  save  themselves  from  starvation, 
and  generally  do  a  good  deal  more.  The  time  allowed 
varies  greatly,  but  the  usual  limit  is  twenty  minutes ;  on 
some  lines  it  is  half  an  hour,  while  on  others  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  is  deemed  sufficient.  The  price  of  a  "  square 
meal  "  varies  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar,  and  there  are  a 
few  places  where  it  is  a  dollar  and  a  quarter.  The  square 
meal  is  not,  as  might  be  supposed,  a  dinner,  supper,  or 
breakfast  in  the  form  of  a  cube  ;  it  includes  the  right  of 
eating  as  much  as  one  pleases  from  any  or  all  the  dishes 
on  the  bill  of  fare,  and  if  the  traveler  chooses  to  repeat, 
again  and  again,  any  favorite  article  of  food,  the  proprie- 
tor offers  no  objection.  The  service  is  generally  good, 
and  the  supply  of  food  palatable  and  bountiful.  The 
majority  of  travelers,  are  apt  to  eat  with  considerable  ve- 
locity at  these  stopping-places,  and  there  are  few  spots  in 
the  world  where  one  can  witness  greater  dexterity  with 
knife  and  fork  than  where  a  railway  train  halts  "  fifteen 


20  novr  TO  travel. 

minutes  for  refreshments."  The  performances  of  the  East 
Indian  juggler  are  thrown  in  the  shade,  and  the  famous 
swordsman  of  Runjeet  Singh,  who  could  wield  his  weapon 
with  such  rapidity  that  it  was  altogether  invisible  while 
removing  the  head  of  an  antagonist,  might  learn  some- 
thing if  he  would  make  a  visit  to  the  eating-house  of  an 
American  railway. 

Those  who  do  not  wish  a  full  meal  will  generally  find  a 
counter  at  the  eating-stations  where  coffee,  tea,  sand- 
wiches, and  cold  meats  may  be  bought  cheaply,  and  on 
some  roads  there  are  stations  where  the  trains  stop  for  five 
or  ten  minutes  only,  to  enable  passengers  to  take  a  slight 
lunch,  of  a  solid  or  liquid  character.  On  many  of  the 
roads  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  is  forbidden  ;  but 
these  are  not  held  to  include  beer,  cider,  and  light  wines. 

It  is  a  good  rule  for  a  traveler  never  to  miss  the  oppor- 
tunity of  taking  a  meal.  Sometimes  the  hours  are  a  trifle 
inconvenient,  and  he  may  not  feel  hungry  when  an  eating- 
station  is  reached ;  but  if  he  allows  it  to  pass  he  will  find 
himself  faint  with  hunger  before  he  comes  to  the  next. 
On  long  journeys  it  is  well  to  carry  a  lunch-basket  of  such 
things  as  may  strike  the  owner's  fancy  and  palate,  but 
care  should  be  taken  to  avoid  articles  that  give  out  dis- 
agreeable odors.  Limburger  cheese  is  not  to  be  recom- 
mended— nor,  in  fact,  cheese  of  any  sort ;  cold  tongue  is 
another  objectionable  article,  as  it  will  not  keep  many 
hours,  and  has  a  way  of  smelling  badly,  or  even  worse. 
Crackers,  English  biscuit,  and  fruit,  with  a  bottle  of  claret 
or  some  similar  drink,  are  the  best  things  for  a  railway 
lunch-basket,  and  sometimes  they  tend  greatly  to  preserve 
the  temper  unruffled,  by  filling  an  aching  void  when  the 
train  is  delayed  and  the  square  meal  unattainable. 

On  several  of  the  great  lines -running  westward,  dining 
and  hotel  cars  have  been  established.     The  latter  are  both 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  27 

eating  and  sleeping-coaches  in  one,  but  they  arc  not  gen- 
erally in  favor,  as  it  is  found  in  actual  practice  that  the 
smell  of  cookery  is  disagreeable  to  the  slumberer,  while 
that  of  the  sleeping-room  is  not  acceptable  to  the  nostrils 
when  one  sits  down  to  breakfast  or  dinner.  The  dining- 
car  is  kitchen  and  dining-room,  and  nothing  more.  It  is 
attached  to  the  train  at  a  convenient  time  for  a  meal,  and 
runs  with  it  for  a  couple  of  hours  or  so,  when  it  is  turned 
to  a  side  track  and  waits  to  serve  the  next  banquet  for  a 
train  going  the  other  way.  The  dining-car  is  a  most  ad- 
mirable institution,  as  it  enables  the  traveler  to  take  his 
meals  leisurely  while  proceeding  on  his  way.  It  is  gener- 
ally well-managed  and  liberally  supplied,  and  one  may  be 
fed  as  bountifully,  and  on  as  well-cooked  food,  as  in  the 
majority  of  hotels.  On  some  of  these  cars  meals  are 
served  a  la  carte ;  but  the  most  of  them  have  the  fixed- 
price  system,  at  the  same  rates  as  the  stations  along  the 
lines  where  they  run. 

In  the  parlor  cars,  your  seat  is  designated  on  a  ticket 
specially  marked  and  numbered,  and  no  one  has  any  right 
to  occupy  it  during  your  absence.  On  the  ordinary  cars, 
the  seats  are  common  property,  and  cannot  be  retained  ; 
though  it  is  almost  universally  recognized  that  the  deposit 
of  an  overcoat,  shawl,  bag,  or  some  other  article  of  the 
traveler's  equipment  in  a  seat  is  prima  facie  evidence 
that  it  has  been  taken.  Impudent  persons  will  sometimes 
remove  the  property  of  one  who  is  temporarily  absent, 
and  appropriate  the  seat  to  themselves  ;  but  they  gener- 
ally vacate  it  on  being  reasoned  with.  If  they  are  obsti- 
nate, the  conductor  may  be  called,  and  sometimes  the 
muscular  persuasion  of  a  strong  brakeman  or  two  is  neC' 
essary  to  convince  the  intruder  of  his  mistake. 


CHAPTER   III. 

AMERICAN   STEAMBOAT   TRAVEL. 

The  railway  system  of  the  United  States  had  its  begin- 
ning about  fifty  years  ago,  and  is  consequently  a  third  of 
a  century  behind  the  adoption  of  the  steamboat.  Accord- 
ing to  the  best  authorities,  the  first  American  steamboat 
that  carried  passengers  and  made  regular  trips  was  built 
by  John  Fitch,  at  Philadelphia,  and  was  the  successor  of 
two  experimental  boats  by  the  same  inventor.  She  ran 
on  the  Delaware  river  during  the  summer  of  1790,  and 
made  altogether  more  than  two  thousand  miles,  at  a  maxi- 
mum speed  of  seven  and  a  half  miles  an  hour.  Fulton 
built  the  Clermont  in  1S06,  and  her  regular  trips  ]3egan  in 
1S07,  seventeen  years  later  than  the  achievement  of  Fitch. 
From  this  beginning,  river-navigation  by  steam  was  spread 
through  the  United  States  till  it  reached  every  stream 
where  boats  could  ply,  and  some  where  they  were  of  no 
use.  Of  late  years  the  steamboat  interest  has  declined  in 
some  parts  of  the  country,  owing  to  the  extension  of  the 
railway  system ;  but  it  is  still  of  great  magnitude,  and  will 
doubtless  so  continue  for  many  years  to  come. 

American  steamboats  are  undisputedly  the  finest  in  the 
world,  and  every  foreigner  who  visits  the  United  States 
looks  with  wonder  at  our  floating  palaces.  Whether  on 
eastern  or  western  waters,  the  result  is  the  same.  The 
most  ordinary  boat  surpasses  the  finest  that  English  or 
European  rivers  or  lakes  can  show. 

(28) 


now  TO  TEAVEL.  29 

The  largest  and  most  elaborate  of  the  eastern  boats  are 
on  the  Hudson  river  and  Long  Island  sound ;  the  finest  of 
the  western  boats  are  on  the  Mississippi.  Some  of  those 
that  connect  New  York  and  Albany  and  New  York  and 
Boston  are  capable  of  carrying  six  hundred  first  cabin 
passengers  with  comfort,  and  they  have  been  known  to 
transport  as  many  as  a  thousand.  On  the  night-boats 
there  is  a  general  sleeping-room  below  deck,  and  a  bed  in 
this  locality  is  included  in  the  ticket.  Separate  rooms  on 
the  upper  deck  must  be  paid  for  extra  ;  but  they  are  worth 
their  cost  in  the  privacy,  better  ventilation,  and  superior 
accommodations  that  they  afford,  besides  being  easier  to 
escape  from  in  case  of  accidents.  The  saloons  are  large, 
and  elaborately  furnished ;  and,  if  the  boat  is  crowded  to 
repletion,  the  sofas  are  used  as  sleeping-places  by  those 
who  were  not  lucky  enough  to  obtain  rooms  or  beds  be- 
low. Sometimes  extra  beds  are  put  up  in  the  saloon  and 
lower  cabin,  so  that  the  place  looks  not  unlike  a  hospital, 
or  the  dormitory  of  a  charity  school. 

A  crowded  steamboat  at  night  is  the  paradise  of  the 
pickpocket,  who  frequently  manages  to  reap  a  rich  har- 
vest from  the  unprotected  slumberers.  Even  the  private 
rooms  are  not  safe  from  thieves,  as  their  occupants  are 
frequently  robbed.  On  one  occasion,  some  thirty  or  more 
rooms  on  a  sound  steamer  were  entered  in  a  single  night. 
The  scoundrels  had  obtained  access  to  the  rooms  in  the 
day-time,  and  arranged  the  locks  on  the  doors  so  that  they 
could  not  be  properly  fastened.  The  night  traveler  on 
the  steamboats  plying  in  eastern  waters  should  be  very 
particular  to  fasten  his  door  securely,  and  if  he  finds  the 
lock  has  been  tampered  with  he  should  report  the  circum- 
stance to  an  officer  or  to  one  of  the  stewards.  The  win- 
dows should  be  looked  after  as  well  as  the  doors,  and  the 
rules  that  apply  on  railways  to  social  games  of  cards  with 
polite  strangers  should  be  remembered  on  steamboats. 


80  nOVy-   TO   TRAVEL. 

Where  steamboats  are  in  competition  with  railways 
their  fares  are  generally  much  cheaper,  owing  to  the 
longer  time  consumed  on  the  route.  Where  time  is  not 
an  object  the  steamboat  is  the  preferable  conveyance,  as 
the  traveler  is  not  inconvenienced  by  dust,  the  ventilation 
is  better,  means  of  circulation  are  far  superior,  and  on 
river  routes  there  is  a  better  opportunity  to  study  the 
scenerv'.  Tickets  may  be  bought  and  rooms  secured  at 
the  offices  at  the  terminal  points  in  advance,  and  they 
may  also  be  had  on  board  the  boats  at  the  time  of 
departure.  It  is  needless  to  add  that  the  earlier  they  are 
taken  the  better  is  the  choice  of  rooms. 

Meals  are  not  included  in  the  price  of  the  ticket.  They 
are  served  on  nearly  all  boats,  sometimes  at  a  fLxed  price, 
as  at  the  railway  stations,  and  sometimes  a  la  carte.  The 
latter  system  appears  to  be  gaining  in  popularity,  as  it  is 
now  adopted  on  many  lines  that  formerly  adhered  to  the 
old  method. 

On  the  great  lakes  there  are  propellors  on  the  general 
model  of  the  ocean  steamer,  and  in  summer  they  ply  to 
all  the  principal  ports.  Interesting  excursions  may  be 
made  on  these  steamers,  provided  the  traveler  is  not  dis- 
turbed by  a  little  roughness  of  the  water  now  and  then  ; 
of  late  years  the  voyage  around  the  lakes  has  become 
highly  popular,  and  is  very  pleasurable  in  Summer.  Pad- 
dle steamers  also  abound  on  the  lakes,  but  they  do  not 
equal  those  of  the  Hudson  and  Long  Island  sound,  either 
in  size  or  in  the  splendor  of  their  accommodations. 

On  the  Western  rivers  the  model  of  the  boat  differs 
materially  from  the  Eastern  one.  The  main  saloon  is 
quite  above  the  engine-room,  which  is  on  the  lower  deck, 
where  the  freight  is  piled  and  the  steerage  passengers  are 
congregated.  The  Eastern  and  lake  boats  are  propelled 
by  low-pressure  engines,  while  the  craft  of  the  Mississippi 


now  TO   TRAVEL.  81 

afld  its  tributaries  are  generally  high-pressure,  and  some- 
times work  a  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  to  the  square 
inch.  Explosions  are  less  frequent  now  than  formerly, 
but  there  are  still  enough  of  them  to  make  traveling  a 
trifle  hazardous.  Not  infrequently  fifty  or  a  hundred 
lives  will  be  lost  by  a  steamboat  explosion,  and  on  one 
occasion  the  number  of  deaths  by  the  blowing  up  of  a 
steamboat  and  her  consequent  destruction  by  fire  exceeded 
fifteen  hundred. 

Steamboat  racing  was  once  one  of  the  amusements  of 
the  Mississippi  and  is  not  altogether  unknown  at  present, 
though  it  has  greatly  declined.  In  the  annals  of  the  West 
there  are  many  famous  races  recorded,  where  large  sums 
of  money  were  risked  on  the  result,  and  where  the  pas- 
sengers were  as  much  excited  over  the  event  as  the  own- 
ers of  the  boats.  In  1853  there  was  a  race  from  New 
Orleans  to  Louisville,  between  the  steamers  Eclipse  and 
Shotwell,  on  which  seventy  thousand  dollars  were  staked 
by  the  owners  of  the  rival  craft,  and  probably  the  private 
bets  were  fully  equal  to  that  amount.  The  two  boats 
were  literally  "stripped  for  the  race  ;"  they  were  loaded  to 
the  depth  that  would  give  them  the  greatest  speed,  and 
their  arrangements  for  taking  fuel  were  as  complete  as 
possible.  Barges  were  filled  with  wood  at  stated  points 
on  the  river  and  dropped  out  to  mid-stream  as  the  boats 
approached  ;  they  were  taken  alongside  and  their  cargoes 
of  wood  transferred  without  any  stoppage  of  the  steamer's 
engines.  At  the  end  of  the  first  twenty-four  hours  the 
Eclipse  and  Shotwell  were  side  by  side,  360  miles  from 
New  Orleans.  They  continued  in  almost  this  way  to 
Louisville,  and,  though  the  race  was  supposed  to  have 
been  won  by  the  Eclipse,  there  was  so  much  dispute  about 
it  that  the  wager  was  never  paid. 

Passenger  travel  on  the  Western  rivers  has  been  greatly 


33  HOW   TO   Tr.A^-EL, 

reduced  in  the  last  twenty  years,  owing  to  the  creation  of 
lines  of  railway  parallel  to  the  rivers,  and  the  majority'  of 
the  boats  now  running  are  far  behind  those  of  the  palmy 
days  between  1S50  and  1S60.  Fares  are  lower  than  on 
the  railways,  and  they  include  rooms  and  meals  as  of  old, 
but  the  table  is  less  bountifully  supplied  than  formerly,  and 
the  number  of  servants  is  not  so  large.  There  is  less 
competition,  and  the  schedule  of  fares  is  generally  adhered 
to.  In  the  old  days  there  was  comparatively  little  regu- 
larity, and  the  clerk  or  captain  of  each  boat  could  do 
pretty  much  as  he  liked  about  terms  to  passengers.  On 
the  Red  river  the  clerks  were  accustomed  to  graduate  the 
fare  according  to  the  locality  where  the  passenger  came 
on  board.  The  more  fertile  and  wealthy  the  region,  the 
higher  was  the  price  of  passage.  Travelers  from  the  cot- 
ton districts  paid  more  than  those  from  where  tobacco  was 
the  staple  product,  and  those  from  the  sugar  country  paid 
more  than  any  other  class.  With  few  exceptions  there 
was  no  ticket  system,  ever}'  man  paying  his  fare  when  it 
best  suited  him  to  do  so.  At  present  on  a  change  totitcela. 
The  departure  of  a  steamboat  from  one  of  the  great 
landings  is  a  matter  of  some  uncertainty.  If  she  is  adver- 
tised to  leave  at  a  certain  time,  those  familiar  with  the 
business  will  understand  that  she  will  not  leave  before 
that  hour,  and  her  departure  after  it  will  be  guided  by 
circumstances.  She  will  go  when  her  freight  and  passen- 
ger-list are  sufficiently  full  to  make  the  trip  a  profitable 
one,  unless  she  belongs  to  a  line  performing  a  regular 
service,  in  which  case  she  is  held  to  her  schedule.  The 
writer  once  took  passage  on  a  Mississippi  steamer  that 
remained  at  the  wharf  twenty-nine  hours  after  her  adver- 
tised time,  and  all  the  while  she  had  steam  up  and  her 
whistle  was  blown  every  half  hour  or  so  to  indicate  that 
she  was  "just  going."     And  a  friend  of  his  once  took  pas- 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL.  33 

sage  on  a  steamboat  from  St.  Louis  to  Cincinnati  before 
the  days  of  the  railway.  lie  lived  on  board  for  nearly  a 
week  with  the  boat  tied  up  to  the  landing.  At  the  end  of 
that  time  the  trip  was  abandoned,  as  the  boat  could  not 
obtain  a  cargo  for  Cincinnati,  and  the  passage-money  was 
refunded  in  full. 

When  you  go  on  board  a  Western  steamboat  proceed 
at  once  to  the  office  and  pay  your  fare.  The  clerk  will 
hand  you  the  key  to  your  room  or  assign  you  to  a  berth  in 
one  that  already  contains  a  passenger,  and  then  you  can 
make  yourself  at  home.  You  will  find  the  manners  of 
the  Western  waters  more  free  than  those  of  the  East,  and 
it  is  quite  possible  that  your  room-mate,  if  you  have  one, 
will  commence  the  cultivation  of  your  acquaintance  with 
an  invitation  to  drink ;  the  custom  of  shooting  a  man  who 
declines  this  politeness  does  not  prevail  at  present,  and 
the  records  of  its  having  ever  occurred  are  shrouded  in 
obscurity.  Western  and  Southwestern  passengers  are 
often  rude  and  uncouth,  but  the  rudeness  is  almost  always 
unintentional,  and  the  coarse  exterior  is  very  apt  to  cover 
a  warm  heart.  The  stranger  will  find  much  to  amuse 
and  interest  him,  and  there  are  few  places  where  human 
nature  can  be  studied  to  better  advantage  than  in  the 
saloon  of  a  Western  steamboat. 

The  gambler  once  flourished  on  the  Mississippi.  He  is 
less  abundant  than  of  yore,  but  the  supply  is  still  quite 
equal  to  the  demand.  He  is  generally  not  so  polished  as 
his  confrere  of  the  eastern  boats  and  railway  trains,  but 
his  ways  are  no  less  winning,  so  far  as  the  taking  of  money 
is  concerned,  and  he  goes  much  further  in  the  science  of 
cheating.  The  unsophisticated  stranger  who  takes  a 
fourth  hand  with  a  trio  of  the  light-fingered  fraternity, 
"  just  to  make  up  a  game,"  might  as  well  hand  over  his 


34  HOW   TO   TRAVEL. 

pocket-book  at  the  start,  unless  he  prefers  going  through 
the  form  of  losing  his  cash. 

Never  be  in  a  hurry  on  a  western  boat,  as  the  time  of 
arrival  at  your  destination  is  a  matter  of  more  or  less  un- 
certainty. Delays  at  the  landings,  to  take  or  discharge 
freight,  are  sometimes  vexatious,  and  the  journey  may  re- 
quire double  the  time  that  was  expected  at  the  start.  In 
the  season  of  low  water  the  boat  is  liable  to  get  aground, 
and  may  lie  there  for  hours,  days,  or  even  for  weeks,  be- 
fore she  is  again  afloat. 

The  dangers  of  the  western  waters  are  greater  than 
those  of  the  east.  The  boats  are  more  liable  to  take  fire, 
owing  to  their  form  of  construction,  and,  as  their  engines 
are  on  the  high-pressure  principle,  the  chance  of  explosion 
of  the  boilers  is  much  greater.  The  navigation  of  the 
rivers  is  hazardous,  as  the  sand-banks  are  constantly  shift- 
ing, and  the  course  to  be  followed  by  the  pilots  is  rarely 
the  same  for  three  months  at  a  time.  Snags  and  sawyers 
present  dangers  quite  unknown  to  eastern  waters,  and  in 
the  Missouri  river  especially  they  are  very  numerous.  A 
snag  is  a  log  or  tree-trunk  imbedded  in  the  bottom  of  a 
river,  with  one  end  at  or  near  the  surface.  The  current 
causes  it  to  incline  down  stream,  and  it  is  more  dangerous 
to  an  ascending  boat  than  to  a  descending  one.  The  flat 
bottom  of  the  boat  is  pierced  by  it,  and  sometimes  the 
craft  is  impaled  as  one  might  impale  a  fly  with  a  pin.  On 
one  occasion,  on  the  Missouri  river,  some  twenty  years 
ago,  a  snag  pierced  the  hull  of  a  steamer,  passed  through 
the  deck  and  cabin,  and  actually  killed  the  pilot  in  the 
wheel-house.  The  sawyer  is  a  tree  that  is  loosely  held  by 
the  roots  at  the  bottom  of  the  river,  while  its  branches  are 
on  the  surface  ;  the  current  causes  it  to  assume  a  sort  of 
sawing  motion,  and  hence  its  name.  It  is  nearly  if  not 
quite  as  dangerous  as  the  snag,  and  some  of  the  pilots 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  35 

hold  it  in  greater  dread,  for  the  reason  that  sawyers  fre- 
quently change  their  position,  while  the  snags,  being  more 
firmly  imbedded,  are  less  likely  to  drift  away. 

The  current  of  the  lower  Mississippi  is  very  strong,  and 
it  is  a  common  remark  that  when  a  man  falls  into  that 
stream  his  chances  of  escape  are  small.  Many  good  swim- 
mers have  been  drowned  in  it,  and  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  dwell  on  its  banks  have  a  wholesome  dread  of 
attempting  to  bathe  in  its  waters. 

When  we  go  westward  beyond  the  valley  of  the  Miss- 
issippi we  find  very  few  inland  lakes  and  streams  that  are 
navigable.  Great  Salt  Lake  maintains  a  steamer  or  two 
for  excursion  purposes,  and  the  waters  of  California  had 
at  one  time  a  fair-sized  fleet  of  boats  that  navigated  San 
Francisco  bay  and  the  streams  flowing  into  it.  Their  im- 
portance has  diminished  since  the  construction  of  the 
railway,  and  at  present  the  steamboats  of  the  Golden 
State  are  of  no  great  consequence.  Those  that  exist  are 
managed  more  on  the  eastern  than  on  the  Mississippi 
system,  but  the  rates  are  generally  higher  than  on  the  At- 
lantic coast. 

The  Columbia  river  and  its  navigable  tributaries  have 
some  thirty  odd  boats,  most  of  them  of  small  size,  and  in- 
tended to  run  where  there  is  little  water.  The  models  in 
use  are  a  modification  of  those  of  the  Hudson  and  Long 
Island  sound,  and  the  rooms  on  the  boats  intended  for 
night  travel  are  generally  large  and  comfortable.  In  go- 
ing up  the  river  from  Portland,  Oregon,  the  regular  boats 
leave  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  travelers  making 
that  journey  will  find  it  to  their  advantage  to  sleep  on 
board  instead  of  spending  the  night  at  the  hotel  and  rising 
at  an  unseasonable  hour  in  the  morning. 

On  all  the  river  steamers  of  America  it  is  advisable  to 
get  a  forward  room  rather  than  one  near  the  stern.    There 


36  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

is  less  jarring  of  the  machinery,  less  heat  from  the  engines, 
and,  when  the  water  is  rough,  there  is  less  "  pitching." 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  more  danger  from  collisions, 
and,  on  the  Mississippi  boats,  a  greater  chance  of  being 
blown  up.  You  pay  your  money,  and  you  take  your 
choice.  But  don't  trouble  yourself  about  accidents  ;  don't 
put  on  your  life-preserver  before  you  go  to  sleep,  as  timid 
persons  have  been  known  to  do ;  and  if  anything  should 
happen  try  to  face  the  danger  coolly,  and  do  the  best  you 
can.  If  you  have  occasion  to  don  a  life-preserver,  be  sure 
to  fasten  it  well  up  under  the  arms,  and  not  around  the 
waist.  In  the  proper  position  it  will  support  the  head 
above  water,  while,  if  fastened  around  the  waist,  it  is  apt 
to  sustain  the  lower  part  of  the  body  and  submerge  the 
head.  If  compelled  to  take  to  the  water,  divest  yourself 
of  the  greater  part  of  your  clothing,  and  have  your  feet 
bare,  or,  at  best,  only  stocldnged.  Ladies  should  reject 
their  corsets  under  such  circumstances,  as  they  are  seri- 
ous hindrances  to  breathing  in  the  water,  and  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  long  skirts  are  great  impediments  to 
swimming,  or  even  to  floating.  Some  persons  have  rec- 
ommended their  retention,  on  account  of  their  buoyancy ; 
but  this  only  lasts  for  a  few  moments.  As  soon  as  they 
become  soaked  with  water  they  become  heavy,  and  have  a 
tendency  to  drag  the  wearer  down,  rather  than  to  support 
her. 


CHAPTER.  IV. 

SEA  AND   OCEAN  TRAVEL. 

The  landsman  who  has  never  been  on  a  sea-voyage 
looks  with  more  or  less  hesitation  at  the  prospect  of  mak- 
ing one.  His  thoughts  are  occupied  with  what  he  has 
heard  or  read  of  the  perils  of  the  great  deep,  and  he  re- 
gards with  a  feeling  akin  to  veneration  the  bronzed  sailor 
who  has  plowed  every  ocean  on  the  globe,  and  tasted  the 
delights  of  every  climate.  He  questions  his  friends  who 
have  been  to  sea  before  him,  and  from  their  varied  experi- 
ence lays  up  a  store  of  knowledge  more  or  less  useful.  He 
wonders  how  he  will  enjoy  sailing  over  the  blue  waters, 
how  the  spectacle  will  impress  him,  and  more  than  all  else 
he  wonders  whether  or  no  he  will  be  sea-sick.  He  busies 
himself  with  procuring  a  suitable  outfit  for  his  nautical 
journeys,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  selects  a  quantity  of 
articles  he  never  uses,  and  which  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
give  away. 

Before  the  days  of  steamships  a  sea  voyage  was  an 
affair  of  considerable  moment,  as  it  implied  an  uncertain 
period  on  the  waters,  and  the  passenger  was  obliged  to 
take  along  a  good  many  articles  of  necessity  or  comfort, 
or  go  without  them  altogether.  Nowadays  the  principal 
preparation  is  to  secure  your  place  and  pay  for  your 
ticket,  and,  unless  you  are  very  eccentric  in  your  wishes 
and  desires,  you  will  find  everything  you  want  to  eat  or 
drink  on  board  the  ship  that  is  to  carry  you.     In  selecting 

(.37) 


38  HOW   TO   TRAVEL, 

your  place,  if  you  are  inexperienced  in  sea  travel,  try  and 
get  as  near  the  middle  of  the  ship  as  you  possibly  can, 
and  if  you  are  forward  of  "  amidships  "  you  are  better  off 
than  if  the  same  distance  "  aft."  In  the  middle  of  the  ship 
there  is  less  motion  than  elsewhere  in  a  pitching  sea,  and 
the  further  you  can  get  from  the  screw  the  less  do  you 
feel  the  jarring  of  the  machiner)%  The  rolling  is  the 
same  all  over  the  craft,  and  there  is  no  position  that  will 
rid  you  of  it.  Several  devices  in  the  shape  of  swinging- 
berths  have  been  tried,  for  the  benefit  of  persons  with 
tender  heads  and  stomachs,  and  some  of  them  have  been 
quite  successful  in  smoothing  the  rough  ways  of  the 
ocean,  but  the  steamship  companies  have  been  slow  to 
adopt  them,  and  the  old  salts  do  not  regard  them  with  a 
friendly  eye. 

Close  all  your  business  and  have  everything  ready  the 
day  before  your  departure.  It  is  better  to  sit  around  and 
be  idle  for  a  few  hours  than  to  have  the  worry  of  a  lot  of 
things  that  have  been  deferred  till  the  last. 

If  you  are  going  on  a  long  voyage  by  sailing  ship  and 
expect  to  pass  through  the  torrid  and  both  temperate 
zones,  you  should  provide  yourself  with  thick  and  thin 
clothing  suitable  to  all  latitudes.  If  you  are  a  society  man 
of  course  you  will  carry  your  dress  suit  and  a  goodly  stock 
of  fine  linen  to  match,  but  if  you  are  "  roughing  it,"  and 
have  no  letters  of  introduction  nor  social  designs,  the 
dress  suit  will  be  superfluous.  Take  three  or  four  suits 
of  linen  for  wearing  on  shore  in  hot  countries,  a  medium 
suit  of  woolen  for  temperate  lands  and  a  thick  suit  of  the 
same  material  for  high  latitudes  north  or  south.  The 
roughest  clothing  procurable  is  what  you  need  for  wear- 
ing on  shipboard,  thin  for  the  torrid  zone  and  thicker  for 
the  temperate.  Woolen  or  "  hickory "  shirts  are  the 
proper  things  for  sea  wear,  and  the  only  occasion  when 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  39 

you  need  a  white  shirt  is  when  you  go  on  shore.  Your 
own  judgment  must  be  your  guide  as  to  the  proper  supply 
of  collars,  handkerchiefs,  and  the  like ;  don't  forget  to  be 
well  provided  with  underclothing,  and  remember  that  wool 
is  a  much  safer  article  to  wear  against  the  skin  than  cot- 
ton or  linen.  Take  plenty  of  woolen  undershirts  of  the 
lightest  texture  for  hot  climates,  and  of  course  you  will 
have  thick  ones  for  the  cold  regions.  An  umbrella  and  a 
cane  are  desirable  for  protection  against  sun  and  rain,  or 
dogs  and  beggars,  when  going  on  shore.  A  sun  hat,  or 
sola  topee,  as  it  is  called  in  India,  is  desirable  in  the 
tropics,  but  there  is  no  need  of  taking  it  along  at  the 
start.  It  can  be  bought  in  the  first  tropical  port  you  visit, 
and  will  be  found  there  at  a  lower  price  than  where  it  is 
not  in  regular  use. 

If  you  are  going  to  China  or  India  from  an  American 
port  you  need  take  only  enough  shore  clothing  to  last  you 
till  you  arrive  there,  as  the  tailors  in  those  countries  can 
outfit  you  very  expeditiously,  and  at  lower'prices  than  you 
have  at  home.  Of  course  you  should  have  something  to 
wear  during  the  day  or  two  it  will  require  them  to  make 
up  the  goods  after  taking  your  measure.  They  will  not 
give  you  a  very  snug  fit,  and  quite  possibly  your  garments 
may  look  as  if  they  had  been  made  on  another  man's 
measure,  but  if  they  are  comfortable  and  succeed  in  touch- 
ing you  here  and  there  they  are  about  all  you  can  expect. 
The  Chinese  tailor  generally  suggests  "no  fittee  no 
takee  "  when  he  measures  you,  but  his  ideas  of  a  fit  are 
different  from  those  of  the  fashionable  clothiers  of  New 
York  and  London. 

If  you  carry  gloves  through  the  tropics  be  sure  to  wrap 
them  well  in  oiled  silk  before  starting.  It  is  well  to 
observe  this  rule  with  gloves  on  all  sea  voyages,  as  the 
marine  atmosphere  is  very  injurious  to  them. 


40  HOW  TO   TRAVEL. 

If  you  are  a  smoker  carry  your  own  cigars  and  tobacco. 
Fine  cigars  should  be  put  up  in  tin  or  glass,  as  they  are 
apt  to  suffer  from  the  sea  air ;  it  is  the  opinion  of  many 
travelers  that  it  is  not  worth  the  trouble  to  carry  good 
cigars  on  an  ocean  voyage,  as  they  are  quickly  spoiled,  and 
soon  taste  no  better  than  common  ones.  A  fine  cigar 
may  be  desirable  after  each  meal,  but  for  other  times  and 
for  "  smoking  between  smokes  "  an  ordinary  one  is  just  as 
well.  The  author  has  tried  all  kinds  of  cigars  at  sea,  and 
gives  his  verdict  in  favor  of  the  manilla  cigar  of  the 
quality  called  "seconds  (understand  that  the  manilla 
cheroot  is  not  intended,  but  only  the  cigar).  Seconds  are 
preferable  to  firsts,  as  they  are  lighter  in  size  and  quality ; 
the  firsts  make  a  ver)-  fair  after-dinner  cigar,  and  in  the 
Far  East  many  persons  prefer  them  to  choice  Havanas. 
If  you  smoke  a  pipe  be  sure  and  have  a  supply  of  pipes 
with  perforated  covers  for  use  on  deck  when  the  wind  is 
blowing. 

For  the  trans-Atlantic  voyage,  between  America  and 
Europe,  there  is  very  little  need  of  preparation,  beyond 
getting  your  ticket  and  putting  affairs  in  shape  for  your 
absence.  Take  plenty  of  thick  underclothing,  your  rough- 
est suit  of  clothes  for  wearing  on  the  voyage,  the  roughest 
and  heaviest  overcoat  that  you  possess  for  wet  weather, 
and  an  equally  rough  rug  or  other  wrap  for  keeping  you 
warm  on  deck  when  the  north  wind  blows  merrily.  If 
you  are  of  a  sedentary  habit  buy  a  steamer  chair,  and 
when  you  buy  it  make  up  your  mind  that  you  will  occupy 
it  when  you  want  to.  A  great  number  of  people  who  say 
they  "  don't  want  the  bother  of  a  chair,"  or  "  didn't  think 
to  get  one,"  are  in  the  habit  of  helping  themselves  to  the 
chairs  of  others  without  the  least  compunction  of  con- 
science and  without  caring  a  straw  as  to  the  desires  of  the 
owners  for  their  property.     Women  are  worse  offenders 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  41 

than  men  in  this  matter,  and  the  young  and  pretty  are 
worse  than  the  older  and  plainer.  If  you  have  a  stony 
heart  you  will  turn  an  intruder  out  of  your  chair  without 
ceremony,  whatever  the  age  or  sex,  but  if  you  cannot 
muster  the  courage  to  do  so  your  best  plan  is  to  send  the 
deck  steward  to  bring  the  chair,  and  while  he  is  getting  it 
you  can  remain  quietly  out  of  sight.  When  you  buy  the 
chair  have  it  marked  with  your  name  or  initials,  so  that  it 
can  be  easily  distinguished  from  others  of  the  same  shape 
and  color. 

You  are  expected  to  come  to  the  dinner-table  in  a  black 
coat  on  most  of  the  steamship  lines.  The  rule  is  not 
imperative,  however,  but  it  is  well  to  comply  with  it,  as 
you  will  encounter  many  people  whose  notions  about 
dressing  for  dinner  are  rigid,  and,  besides,  the  half  hour 
spent  in  arranging  the  toilet  before  the  bell  calls  you  to 
the  table  is  a  variation  of  the  monotony  of  the  voyage. 

Everything  needed  for  the  voyage  may  be  contained  in 
a  valise  or  "  steamer  trunk,"  with  a  toilet  satchel,  and  all 
heavy  luggage  should  be  sent  below  at  the  dock.  A 
steamer  trunk  is  designed  to  be  stowed  under  the  berth 
out  of  the  way ;  its  proper  dimensions  are  30  inches  long, 
15  or  16  wide,  and  12  high.  Its  length  or  width  may  be 
greater,  but  its  height  should  not  exceed  12  or  at  most  13 
inches,  or  it  will  be  often  found  too  large  for  the  space 
where  it  is  intended  to  go. 

An  old  valise  or  sack  should  be  taken  along  for  con- 
taining the  rough  sea-clothing  which  may  be  left  with  the 
steamer-chair   at   the   company's   office  in   Liverpool   or 
whatever  port   the   passenger  may  land  at.     There  they  ^ 
remain  till  his  return,  in  a  storeroom   specially  provided  ; 
for  them.     They  should  be  properly  marked,  so  that  the  j 
storekeeper  will  have  no  difficulty  in  selecting  them  when  ' 
wanted. 


43  HOW   TO  TRAVEL. 

The  servants  who  wait  upon  you  will  expect  a  reward 
for  their  attentions,  and  you  will  be  fl}'ing  in  the  face  of  a 
long-established  custom  if  you  fail  to  give  it.  On  the 
English  steamers  half  a  sovereign  (ten  shillings  English^ 
is  the  proper  fee  for  the  room-steward  on  the  voyage 
either  way,  and  the  same  to  the  table-steward.  You  will 
not  diminish  the  attention  upon  you  if  you  say  to  these 
men  at  starting  that  you  will  remember  each  of  them  with 
a  ten-shilling  piece,  provided  you  are  satisfied  with  them ; 
they  know  what  to  expect  and  will  act  accordingly.  On 
the  French  and  German  steamers  a  ten-franc  piece  is  the 
usual  fee  to  each  of  the  servants  above  mentioned.  The 
"  boots "  expects  a  five-shilling  or  a  five-franc  piece, 
according  as  the  steamer  is  English  or  French,  provided 
he  polishes  your  boots  during  the  voyage,  and  the  man  in 
charge  of  the  bath  comes  along  for  a  similar  amount  if 
you  make  regular  use  of  his  services.  If  you  frequent 
the  smoking-room  the  steward  in  charge  of  it  expects  to 
be  remembered  with  a  half  crown,  and  a  similar  coin  will 
not  be  refused  by  the  deck-steward  who  looks  after  your 
chair.  None  of  these  fees  should  be  paid  until  the  last 
day  of  the  voyage  and  the  service  of  the  men  has  ended. 
It  often  happens  that  the  room-steward  is  very  attentive 
through  the  voyage  and  in  every  way  satisfactory;  he 
answers  your  bell  promptly  and  you  consider  him  a  model 
servant,  but  if  you  give  him  his  fee  before  he  has  carried 
your  impedimenta  on  deck  it  is  quite  possible  that  you 
will  carry  them  yourself  or  hire  another  man  to  do  it. 
His  interest  in  you  has  ceased  and  he  is  looking  after 
somebody  who  hasn't  yet  rewarded  him.  The  same  thing 
may  happen  with  the  table-steward,  and  he  cannot  hear 
your  summons  after  he  has  been  paid  off,  though  before 
that  event  he  was  the  very  beau  ideal  of  all  you  could 
wish. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  43 

It  is  always  well  to  provide  yourself  with  the  money  of 
the  country  you  are  going  to,  or  with  that  of  the  nation- 
ality of  the  steamer.  On  an  English  ship,  take  ten  pounds 
or  so  of  English  money,  to  cover  all  your  fees  and  extras, 
and  to  have  a  supply  on  landing  until  a  visit  can  be  made 
to  the  banker.  On  the  French  steamers,  take  a  propor- 
tionate amount  in  francs,  and  on  the  German  steamers,  a 
supply  of  marks  will  be  quite  in  order.  You  can  get  this 
cash  at  a  money-changer's  without  as  much  trouble  as  you 
will  have  in  case  you  find  no  one  on  the  steamer  to  make 
change  for  you,  and  the  discount  will  be  less. 

The  perils  of  the  transatlantic  voyage  are  now  practi- 
cally reduced  to  the  dangers  resulting  from  fog  on  and 
near  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  The  ships  performing 
the  service  of  the  best  of  the  lines  are  built  so  strong  that 
no  wind  to  which  the  North  Atlantic  is  accustomed  can 
injure  them,  and  the  captains  are  men  of  experience  and 
ability.  But  the  fog  is  an  evil  which  will  not  disappear  at 
our  bidding  ;  the  most  intelligent  commander  is  helpless 
in  the  fog,  and  he  cannot  be  sure  at  any  moment  that  he  is 
not  rushing  to  destruction  upon  a  pitiless  iceberg,  or 
dashing  forward  to  collide  with  another  ship,  in  which  one 
or  both  of  the  unlucky  vessels  may  be  lost.  The  ice  is 
probably  the  greater  of  the  dangers,  as  the  steamers  give 
warning  of  their  presence  to  each  other  by  the  sound  of 
whistles  or  fog-horns,  and  of  late  years  there  has  been  an 
attempt  to  establish  steam  lanes  across  the  Atlantic,  so 
that  steamers  going  eastward  should  be  several  miles  from 
the  track  of  those  that  are  westward-bound.  The  iceberg 
hangs  out  no  lights  and  blows  no  whistle,  and  the  first 
warning  the  captain  can  have  of  its  presence  is  when  its 
white  outline  looms  through  the  fog  less  than  a  ship's 
length  ahead.  Many  a  steamer  has  had  a  narrow  escape 
from  destruction,  and  not  a  few  have  been  lost  by  encoun- 


44  now  TO  TRA^'EI^ 

ters  with  the  ice.  Of  those  that  have  never  been  heard 
from  it  is  conjectured  that  the  majorit}'  were  lost  by  col- 
lisions with  the  ice,  as  in  most  instances  it  was  abundant 
at  the  time  of  their  disappearance. 

The  ingenuity  of  man  has  been  taxed  to  avert  the  dan- 
gers from  the  ice  and  fog,  but  thus  far  comparatively  little 
has  been  accomplished.  At  times  the  density  of  the  fog 
is  so  great  that  the  eye  cannot  penetrate  it  more  than 
twenty  yards ;  experiments  have  been  made  with  the  elec. 
trie  light,  but  the  result  has  not  been  favorable  to  its  gen- 
eral adoption.  A  careful  observation  of  the  thermometer 
will  sometimes  show  the  proximity  of  a  berg,  as  the  melt- 
ing ice  causes  a  fall  in  the  temperature  of  the  water,  fre- 
quently amounting  to  ten  or  twelve  degrees,  and  some- 
times there  will  be  a  chilly  blast  of  air,  that  says  very 
plainly  there  is  ice  in  the  vicinity.  The  early  summer 
months  are  the  most  dangerous  on  the  score  of  ice,  but 
the  bergs  abound  till  late  in  autumn ;  they  come  from  the 
west  coast  of  Greenland,  where  they  are  broken  off  from 
the  immense  glaciers  that  flow  down  from  the  interior  and 
push  out  into  the  sea.  The  great  polar  current  carries 
them  southward,  past  Labrador  and  Ne^\•foundland,  till 
they  are  thrown  into  the  warm  waters  of  the  Gulf-stream 
and  there  melted  away.  They  rarely  go  further  south  than 
to  the  fortieth  parallel,  but  are  sometimes  drifted  as  far  east 
as  the  Azores. 

By  taking  a  course  that  will  carry  them  to  the  south  of 
the  Grand  Banks  the  steamers  might  avoid  the  fog  and  its 
consequent  dangers ;  some  of  them  do  so,  and  others  ad- 
vertise that  they  will.  After  they  get  at  sea  the  mind  of 
the  captain  sometimes  undergoes  a  change,  and  the  ship 
is  headed  so  that  she  passes  near  Cape  Race.  The  more 
to  the  south  a  ship  is  kept  the  longer  will  be  her  course, 
and  in  these  days  of  keen  competition  to  make  the  short- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  45 

est  passages  the  temptation  is  great  to  run  away  to  the 
northward  as  far  as  possible.  The  author  was  once  a 
passenger  on  a  steamer  that  laid  her  course  within  fifty 
miles  of  Cape  Race,  although  he  had  been  assured  at  the 
office  of  the  company  that  she  would  "take  an  extreme 
southerly  course,"  and  the  promise  to  do  so  had  been  in- 
serted in  the  advertisements.  A  passenger  ventured  to 
say  as  much  to  one  of  the  officers  and  to  ask  if  the  mana- 
gers of  the  company  had  not  ordered  the  southerly  route. 
"  The  captain  commands  here,"  w^as  the  reply,  "  and  the 
managers  have  nothing  to  do  with  his  course ;  he  can  run 
wherever  he  pleases,  and  trust  to  Providence  for  the  re- 
sult." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  great  companies  will  some 
day  make  an  agreement,  and  keep  it,  that  they  will  all 
take  the  southerly  course  and  make  an  end  of  a  competi- 
tion that  is  dangerous  in  a  certain  degree.  They  would 
be  greatly  aided  to  such  an  arrangement  if  the  American 
government  would  w^ithdraw  its  offer  to  give  the  carrying 
of  the  mails  to  the  company  making  the  shortest  average 
of  passages  across  the  Atlantic.  Public  opinion  might 
also  do  something  in  this  way,  but,  unfortunately,  public 
opinion  happens  to  be  in  favor  of  the  most  rapid  transit, 
and  looks  upon  safety  as  a  minor  consideration.  When- 
ever the  majority  of  travelers  shall  think  more  of  the 
pleasure  of  staying  longer  on  the  earth  than  of  going  over 
its  surface  at  the  greatest  speed  there  will  be  a  move  in 
the  right  direction. 

But  do  not  disturb  yourself  with  unpleasant  thoughts  of 
what  may  happen  in  the  fog.  Remember,  rather,  that  of 
the  thousands  of  voyages  that  have  been  made  across  the 
Atlantic  only  a  few  dozens  have  been  unfortunate,  and  of 
all  the  steamers  that  have  plowed  these  waters  only  the 
President.  City  of  GlasgotVy  Pacific y  Tempest,  United  King' 


46  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

dojHy  City  of  Boston^  and  Ismailia — seven  in  all — ^are  un- 
heard from.  The  chances  are  thousands  to  one  in  your 
favor,  and  if  this  does  not  satisfy  you,  try  and  recall  the 
philosophy  of  the  man  who  said  it  was  none  of  his  busi- 
ness whether  the  ship  was  in  danger,  as  he  had  paid  his 
fare  to  the  company  and  they  were  under  obligations  to 
carry  him  safely  to  the  other  side.  If  the  wind  rises  to  a 
gale,  don't  worry  in  the  least,  and  if  you  have  any  doubt 
about  the  matter  ask  your  room-steward  what  the  appear- 
ances of  things  are  to  a  sea-faring  man  like  himself.  Quite 
possibly  his  answer  may  be  in  the  substance,  if  not  in  the 
words,  of  the  mariner's  song : — 

"A  strong  nor'-wester's  blowng,  Bill ; 
Hark  !  don't  ye  hear  it  roar  now  1 
Lord  help  'em,  how  I  pities  them 
Unhappy  folks  on  shore  now  !  " 

When  a  steamer  is  in  a  rough  sea,  especially  if  she  is 
lightly  laden,  the  screw  is  frequently  out  of  water  for  sev- 
eral seconds  at  a  time.  Relieved  from  the  resistance  of 
the  water,  the  screw  whirls  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning 
and  gives  the  stern  of  the  ship  a  very  lively  shaking.  This 
is  called  "  racing,"  and  it  is  anything  but  pleasant,  but 
there  is  a  comforting  assurance  when  you  hear  it  that 
evers'thing  is  all  right  and  the  machinery  in  order.  When- 
ever you  hear  the  racing  of  the  screw  in  rough  weather 
you  will  hear  a  welcome  sound.  If  a  wave  seems  to  hit 
the  ship  a  staggering  blow,  and  send  her  half  over,  do  not 
listen  for  a  commotion  and  spring  from  your  berth,  but 
bend  your  ears  to  catch  the  sound  of  the  engine,  and  when 
you  hear  its  "  choog !  choog !  "  you  may  make  yourself 
easy.  In  rough  weather  or  in  smooth,  the  first  thing  to 
listen  for  on  awaking  is  the  engine,  and  when  you  hear  its 
steady  breathing  and  feel  its  great  heart  pulsating,  as  if 
it  were  the  vital  force  of  an  animate  being,  you  may  turn 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  47 

and  sleep  again,  satisfied  that  the  ship  which  carries  you 
"  walks  the  water  like  a  thing  of  life  "  and  is  bearing  you 
safely  onward  to  your  destination. 

Inventors  have  busied  themselves  to  devise  something 
that  should  put  a  stop  to  the  racing  of  the  screw,  with  its 
liability  to  derange  the  machinery  and  its  certainty  of  dis- 
turbing the  nerves  of  excitable  passengers.  Several  plans 
have  been  tried,  but,  up  to  the  date  of  writing  this  vol- 
ume, none  of  them  have  proved  successful.  Somebody 
will  doubtless  accomplish  the  desired  result  before  the  end 
of  another  decade,  and  when  this  is  done  he  should  give  at- 
tention to  the  jar  caused  by  the  machinery.  It  is  hardly 
reasonable  to  expect  that  a  fast  steamer  will  ever  go  over 
the  water  with  the  steadiness  of  a  sailing-ship,  and  with 
no  perceptible  jarring,  but  so  much  has  been  done  in  the 
last  twenty-five  years  in  smoothing  the  ways  of  the  ocean, 
and  the  vessels  that  plow  it,  that  the  scheme  here  sug- 
gested is  by  no  means  impossible. 

While  sitting  on  deck  some  afternoon  you  may  be  at 
a  loss  for  a  subject  to  think  about.  Busy  yourself  with 
imagining  what  will  be  the  style,  model,  speed,  'and  pro- 
pelling force  of  the  transatlantic  ship  of  twenty,  fifty,  a 
hundred,  and  five  hundred  years  hence  !  Here  is  enough 
to  occupy  you  for  many  hours,  and  perhaps  you  may  de- 
vise something  that  will  benefit  the  human  race,  and,  also, 
not  the  least  consideration,  put  money  in  your  pocket. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SEA-SICKNESS  AND  HOW  TO  AVOID  IT. 

We  come  now  to  the  momentous  question  of  77ial  de  nier. 
It  is  a  question  that  has  puzzled  the  scientific  men  of  all 
ages  since  the  departure  of  the  Argonauts  in  search  of  the 
Golden  Fleece  on  the  first  ship  that  ever  sailed  the  sea, 
and,  from  present  appearances,  it  will  continue  to  be  a 
puzzle  as  long  as  the  waves  of  the  ocean  continue  to  roll. 
By  some  it  is  claimed  to  be  a  nervous  disturbance,  others 
contend  that  it  is  purely  a  stomachic  affair  and  the  nerves 
have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  there  are  others  who  argue 
that  the  brain  is  the  seat  of  the  disorder  and  disturbs 
the  stomach  by  s}Tnpathetic  action.  There  are  wise  men 
who  charge  sea-sickness  to  the  spleen,  the  liver,  or  other 
internal  organs,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  we  may  yet 
hear  of  a  savant  who  attributes  it  to  corns  on  the  toes. 
Sea-sickness  is  a  mystery,  and  the  more  we  study  it  the 
more  are  we  at  sea  as  to  its  exact  operation. 

Some  people,  who  are  bundles  of  nerves,  are  not 
affected  by  the  motion  of  a  ship,  while  others,  who  are 
nerveless  as  a  paper-weight,  are  disturbed  with  the  least 
movement.  Weak  stomachs  escape  while  strong  ones  are 
upset,  and  there  seems  to  be  no  rule  that  can  be  laid  down 
with  exactness  or  anything  that  approaches  it.  But  on 
one  point  there  can  be  no  two  opinions,  that  sea-sickness 
is  a  most  disagreeable  malady,  even  in  its  mildest  form, 
and  that  any  means  of  relieving  it,  or  even  of  mitigating 

(48) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  49 

it  in  a  small  degree,  will  be  hailed  with  delight  by  all  who 
suffer  from  it.  It  will  also  be  a  boon  to  those  who  are 
never  sea-sick,  as  it  will  relieve  them  from  a  companion- 
ship that  is  not  always  the  most  agreeable  in  the  world. 

For  some  persons  there  is  no  escape,  and  they  will  be 
prostrate  in  their  berths  during  the  whole  voyage  of  the 
ship,  or  just  able  to  get  around.  But,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  sea-sickness  may  be  wholly  prevented  by  a  free  use 
of  cathartics  or  anti-bilious  remedies  a  day  or  two  before 
departure  on  a  voyage.  In  America,  the  pills  of  Ayer, 
Brandreth,  or  Wright  will  serve  the  purpose ;  in  England, 
the  famous  "Cockle's  pills,"  and  in  France  the  Pihdes 
Duhmit.  The  relaxation  of  the  system  should  be  sus- 
tained during  the  voyage  by  the  same  means  or  by  the  use 
of  Seidlitz  powders,  or  similar  effervescent  substances; 
this  simple  precaution  will  save  most  persons  from  being 
disturbed  by  sea-sickness,  no  matter  how  wildly  the  ship 
may  toss,  provided  they  combine  with  it  an  abundance  of 
air  and  exercise.  As  before  stated,  there  is  no  relief 
known  at  present  for  the  other  fourth  of  humanity,  except 
to  stay  at  home. 

Dr.  Fordyce  Barker,  an  eminent  physician  who  has  made 
a  careful  study  of  sea-sickness,  opposes  the  previous  use 
of  cathartics,  and  advises  that  a  hearty  meal  be  eaten  a 
short  time  before  going  on  board.  Those  who  are  subject 
to  sea-sickness  he  enjoins  to  undress  and  go  to  bed  before 
the  vessel  moves  from  her  dock  or  anchorage.  He  says 
they  should  eat  regularly  and  heartily  without  raising  the 
head  for  at  least  one  or  two  days,  and  in  this  way  they 
will  accustom  the  digestive  organs  to  the  performance  of 
their  functions.  He  advises  the  use  of  laxative  pills  the 
first  night  out  and,  if  necessary,  during  the  entire  voyage. 
The  following  is  his  prescription : — 


50  HOW   TO  TRAVEL. 


LAXATIVE   PILLS. 

Pulv.  Rhei.  (Turk.), 

3ss. 

Ext.  Hyoscyami, 

3j. 

Pulv.  Aloes  Soc, 

Sapo  Cast, 

aa  gr.  xv. 

Ext.  Nux  Vomicae  Alchoh, 

gr.  X. 

Podophyllin  p., 

gr.  V. 

Ipecac, 

gr-  ij. 

M.     ft.  pil,  (argent)  No.  20. 
S.    Dose^-one,  two,  or  three. 
Where  there  is  a  tendency  to  diarrhoea,  which  some- 
times happens  at  sea,  he  recommends  the  following,  and 
he  also  advises  the  traveler  to  carry  it  in  his  journeys  over 
the  Continent  to  counteract  the  effects  that  occasionally 
come  from  drinking  bad  water.     The  dose  is,  for  an  adult, 
^.    Tinct.  Camphorae,  3vj. 

Tinct.  Capsici,  3ij. 

Spts.  Lavendul.  Comp., 
Tinct.  Opii,  aa  ^ss. 

Syr.  Simp.,  §  ij. 

M.  S.  A  small  teaspoonful  in  a  wineglass  of  water 
after  each  movement. 

Dr.  Barker  says  that  in  cases  where  the  victim  has  suf- 
fered several  days  from  sea-sickness,  with  constant  nausea, 
nervous  depression,  and  sleeplessness,  he  has  found  great 
benefit  in  the  use  of  bromide  of  potassium.  The  pow- 
ders are  to  be  taken  in  a  half-tumbler  of  plain  soda-water, 
and,  if  this  cannot  be  obtained,  in  cold  water  sweetened 
with  sugar.  It  is  to  be  sipped  slowly,  so  that  the  stomach 
may  be  persuaded  to  retain  and  absorb  it.  The  powders 
should  be  kept  in  a  wide-mouthed  vial,  or  in  a  tin  box,  so 
as  to  protect  them  from  the  effects  of  the  sea-air.  The 
following  is  the  prescription  : 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  61 

]^ .     Potass.  Bromide,  f  j. 

Div.  in  Chart  No.  20. 
S.     One,  two,  or  three  times  a  day. 

He  also  recommends  a  person  about  making  a  sea-voy- 
age to  take  a  supply  of  "  mustard  leaves,"  which  can  be 
had  at  the  druggist's.  They  are  useful  in  allaying  the 
nausea  and  vomiting  by  getting  up  a  counter  irritation, 
and  should  be  applied  over  the  pit  of  the  stomach. 

Many  individuals,  especially  those  inclined  to  corpulen- 
cy, find  relief  in  wearing  a  tight  belt  around  the  waist. 
This  is  so  well  understood  that  some  of  the  makers  of 
surgical  appliances  advertise  "  belts  for  sea-sickness  "  as 
part  of  their  stock  in  trade.  Some  persons  recommend  a 
tight-fitting  undergarment  of  strong  silk,  but,  in  order  to 
be  of  use,  it  must  be  altogether  too  close  for  comfort,  and 
the  wearer  is  quite  likely  to  say  that  he  considers  it  the 
greater  of  the  evils. 

A  recumbent  position  is  better  than  the  erect  one  when 
a  traveler  is  suffering  from  the  nautical  disturbance,  and, 
in  most  cases,  he  is  too  weak  to  take  any  other.  It  is  bet- 
ter to  lie  flat  on  the  back  than  in  any  other  way,  and  there 
are  many  persons  who  are  well  when  thus  lying  down,  but 
become  ill  the  minute  they  attempt  to  rise.  A  friend  of 
the  writer  belongs  to  this  category.  His  mode  of  taking 
his  meals  when  at  sea  is  to  lie  flat  on  his  sofa,  while  the 
steward  cuts  his  meat  into  small  pieces  and  gets  every- 
thing ready.  At  a  given  signal  the  sufferer  rises  to  a  sit- 
ting posture,  and  swallows  a  few  mouthfuls  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  Then  he  drops  back,  rests  a  few  minutes,  and 
repeats  the  feeding  operation.  In  half  a  dozen  perform- 
ances of  this  sort  he  will  take  in  a  creditable  dinner ;  as 
long  as  he  remains  on  his  back  his  digestion  goes  on  all 
right,  but  he  cannot  be  five  minutes  on  his  feet  without  a 
return  of  nausea. 


52  HOW  TO  TRA\'EL. 

A  round  of  heavy  dinners  and  champagne  suppers  be- 
fore starting  is  not  a  good  preparation  for  a  sea-voyage, 
neither  is  a  "  send-off  "  on  board,  with  farewell  glasses  of 
inspiriting  liquids.  Many  a  man  has  suffered  at  sea  from 
too  much  conviviality  before  his  departure. 

The  sufferer  on  the  water  is  not  charmed  with  the  men- 
tion of  the  table,  and  even  the  greatest  delicacies  fail  to 
arouse  his  appetite.  Give  him  anything  he  wants,  it  wont 
make  much  difference,  though  it  is  well,  perhaps,  to  deter 
him  from  ham  and  eggs,  chicken  or  lobster  salads,  and 
an>1:hing,  in  fact,  that  contains  grease  or  oil.  Tea  and 
toast  are  the  great  articles  of  diet  for  the  sea-sick,  and 
they  may  be  safely  trusted  with  baked  apples,  and  with 
nearly  all  kinds  of  fruit.  A  cracker  or  an  Albert  biscuit 
will  sometimes  have  charms  when  nothing  else  can  be 
swallowed,  and  when  the  victim  is  convalescent  he  feels 
as  though  a  pickle  would  do  him  good.  Lemonade  is 
admissible  and  soda-water  is  a  safe  beverage  ;  brandy  and 
soda  may  be  ordered  by  those  who  do  not  shine  as  mem- 
bers of  a  temperance  society,  but  it  should  be  taken  with 
caution  and  the  doses  must  not  be  repeated  too  frequently. 
All  drinks  that  contain  carbonic-acid  gas  are  beneficial, 
and  many  persons  find  relief  in  occasional  small  allow- 
ances of  champagne.  Those  who  intend  to  put  any 
reliance  on  this  wine  during  sea-sickness  should  equip 
themselves  with  a  "  champagne  tap  "  before  starting ;  they 
can  then  draw  what  they  desire  from  a  bottle  and  keep 
the  rest  without  fear  that  it  will  become  stale  through  loss 
of  gas. 

Hartshorn,  cologne,  and  other  substances  intended  for 
inhalation  are  all  good  at  this  time,  partly  because  of  their 
effects  on  their  lungs  and  partly  by  the  distraction  of 
taking  them.  A  volatile  article  used  with  great  success  in 
sea-sickness  is  the  nitrite  of  amyl ;  it  is  prepared  in  the 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  53 

form  of  a  pearl  with  a  thin  shell  of  glass  around  it  so  as 
to  prevent  its  evaporation.  Any  reputable  druggist  can 
procure  it,  and  with  the  pearls  it  is  desirable  to  have  a 
tube  for  crushing  them  and  liberating  the  liquid.  In  the 
absence  of  the  tube  they  may  be  crushed  in  the  handker- 
chief, but  when  taken  in  this  way  a  large  part  of  the  effect 
is  lost. 

Always  go  on  deck  when  you  are  able  to  do  so,  even  if 
you  are  carried  up  by  your  friends  or  the  stewards  and 
deposited  in  your  chair  like  an  armful  of  wet  clothing. 
Wrap  yourself  well  against  the  cold,  and  on  the  first 
instant  of  chillness  get  more  covering  or  go  below. 
Whenever  you  feel  the  impulse  to  feed  the  fishes  in  the 
early  stages  of  a  fit  of  sea-sickness  always  go  to  the  lee 
side  of  the  ship  (the  one  the  wind  blows  from)  and  never 
to  windward.  By  so  doing  you  will  save  a  considerable 
amount  of  damage  to  your  clothing,  and  also  to  that  of  any 
who  may  be  near  you. 

Many  persons  will  tell  you  that  it  is  an  excellent  thing 
to  be  sea-sick,  as  you  are  so  much  better  for  ft  afterwards. 
If  you  are  a  sufferer  you  will  do  well  to  accept  their  state- 
ments as  entirely  correct,  since  you  are  thereby  consoled 
and  soothed,  and  the  malady  doesn't  care  what  you  think 
about  it,  one  way  or  the  other. 

And  now  comes  a  bit  of  advice  which  might  have  been 
given  at  the  opening  of  this  dissertation  on  the  discom- 
forts of  the  heaving  deep,  but  has  been  reserved  to  the 
end  in  the  hope  that  it  will  leave  a  lasting  impression. 
When  the  ship  casts  loose  from  the  dock,  or  lifts  hei 
anchor  and  gets  under  way,  you  should  think  of  anything 
and  everything  except  sea-sickness,  and  if  any  one  starts 
the  topic  in  your  hearing  leave  him  and  walk  away,  oi 
ask  him  to  change  the  subject.  If  you  cannot  be  thus 
abrupt,  change  it  for  him  by  starting  a  political  discussion 


54  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

or  other  agreeable  wrangle ;  do  anything  rather  than  allow 
a  continuation  of  his  remarks.  Many  a  man  and  many  a 
woman  has  been  talked  into  being  sea-sick,  or  has  medi- 
tated and  wondered  on  the  possibility  of  it  till  the  malady 
has  put  in  an  appearance.  We  all  know  how  much  the 
mind  dominates  the  body,  how  bad  news  takes  away  the 
appetite  and  good  news  increases  it,  and  we  have  all  heard 
how  a  well  man  was  driven  to  his  bed  by  the  concentrated 
efforts  of  a  dozen  practical  jokers  who  separately  informed 
him  that  he  looked  very  pale  and  something  must  be  the 
matter  with  him.  Don't  talk  or  think  of  sea-sickness; 
you  will  know  it  fast  enough  when  it  comes,  and  till  that 
time  it  is  the  wisest  course  to  assume  that  you  are  to  be 
the  healthiest  passenger  on  the  ship. 

Prof.  A.  G.  Wilkinson,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  says: 

"During  Atlantic  crossings  for  four  years  past  I  found 
but  one  instance  in  which  from  twenty  to  thirty  grains  of 
bromide  of  soda  in  ice-water  three  times  daily  for  four 
days,  commencing  two  days  before  sailing,  failed  to  pre- 
vent loss  of  a  single  meal.  Get  dry  powders  put  up  in  foil 
and  enclosed  in  ground-stoppered  bottles,  to  prevent  deli- 
quescence. I  learned  this  from  experimenting  for  several 
years  with  chloral  and  the  various  bromides.  Soda  alone 
I  was  never  distasteful.  Dr.  G.  M.  Beard,  of  New  York, 
I  was  independently  experimenting  at  the  same  time,  and 
first  published  his  conclusions.  After  vomiting  com- 
mences he  recommends. 

Bromide  of  soda,  3  i.  Tinct.  belladonna,  xxx  guttae. 
Aqua,     5  '^■i- 

Teaspoonful  every  ten  minutes  until  relieved. 

A  lady  friend  had  never  been  able  to  take  a  single  meal 
at  sea;  the  second  day  out,  while  she  was  sick,  I  gave  her 
the  above,  and  she  took  every  meal  for  the  rest  of  the 
voyage. " 


CHAPTER  VI. 


SPECIAL  ADVICE  TO  LADIES. 

For  the  following  the  author  is  indebted  to  a  lady  who 
has  made  several  trans-Atlantic  voyages,  and  is  conse- 
quently familiar  with  the  necessities  and  comforts  of 
ocean  travel : 

"  It  is  simply  preposterous,"  says  ^  fashionable  friend  of 
mine,  "  Here  you  are,  going  to  sail  for  Europe  in  three 
days,  to  be  gone  three  months,  and  you  have  nothing 
ready  but  that  same  old  trunk,  plastered  all  over  with 
baggage  labels,  every  color  of  the  rainbow."  y^at  repondu^ 
"Cest  assez,  mon  ainiT  If  you  wish  to  examine  its  con- 
tents I  will  show  it  you  with  great  pleasure,  and  any  one 
else  who  may  desire  to  see  how  I  '*  stow  away "  my 
traps  can  look  on  at  the  same  time.  But  as  the  steamer- 
clothing,  etc.,  will  be  the  first  to  be  used,  I'll  show  you  the 
contents  of  this  little  fifteen-inch  square  box  first.  This  I 
call  my  "  steamer-trunk."  It  is  not  a  steamer-trunk  proper, 
but  I  find  it  much  more  convenient  than  a  long  flat  one 
such  as  is  used  to  go  under  the  berth.  This  will  stand  on 
one  side  of  the  wash-stand  in  the  state-room,  where  a 
camp-stool  is  generally  found,  and  by  placing  a  folded 
shawl  on  top  it  makes  a  permanent,  comfortable,  and 
firm  seat,  saves  trouble  of  stooping  and  dragging  it 
out,  as  is  the  case  with  an  ordinary  steamer-trunk,  when 
you  want  to  open  it.  The  lid  has  a  flat  leather  loop  in 
the  center  for  a  handle  and  can  be  easily  lifted  when 
closed.     There  is  a  small  tray  inside  which  I  use  as  a 

(55) 


56  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

"  catch-all,"  and  there  is  plenty  of  room  under  the  tray 
for  all  the  clean  linen  I  shall  require  on  the  voyage.  This 
and  my  dressing-bag,  with  one  shawl-strap,  is  all  the  bag- 
gage I  put  into  my  state-room. 

Some  ladies  strew  things,  **  conveniences "  they  call 
them,  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the  state-room ; 
quite  regardless  are  they  to  the  convenience  and  com- 
fort of  a  possible  fellow  passenger.  Do  whatever  you 
please  if  you  can  afford  a  state-room  to  yourself-  But 
if  not,  pray  keep  your  own  side  of  the  house.  Other 
folks  put  a  lot  of  eatables  in  their  berths  and  then 
complain  of  rats.  Don't  take  anj-thing  in  the  eating 
line  except  a  basket  of  lemons,  and  if  you  must  take 
something  to  drink  let  it  be  Chartreuse.  Take  a  box 
of  cathartic  pills,  and  if  you  need  a  dose  make  it  a  little 
larger  than  you  would  under  the  same  circumstances  on 
shore.  Coarse  blue  flannel  or  serge  is  the  best  for  deck 
wear.  Have  the  skirt  of  the  dress  as  short  as  possible 
without  looking  odd.  Attach  the  skirt  to  the  waist  of  the 
dress  and  make  the  front  without  side  forms  so  that  it 
will  look  well  without  a  corset.  A  blouse  waist,  if  well 
made,  will  be  suitable  for  almost  any  figure,  and  is  the 
most  comfortable,  but  it  must  fit  perfectly  round  the  neck 
and  shoulders. 

One  flannel  skirt,  one  thin  skirt  of  some  bright  clean 
gingham,  warm  flannels  next  the  body,  one  pair  of  overall 
flannel  drawers,  bright  turkey  red,  to  be  worn  over  the 
ordinary  underclothing  and  slipped  off  on  going  below, 
two  pair  stout  boots  with  good  square  heels,  and  buttons 
or  laces  to  support  the  ankles  properly,  warm  stockings 
of  silk  or  very  fine  wool.  Don't  weigh  yourself  down 
with  a  lot  of  skirts.  Have  the  limbs  well  covered  and 
free  for  walking.  No  matter  what  season  of  the  year, 
take  along  a  good  stout  cloth  ulster,  reaching  to  the  bot- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  57 

torn  of  your  dress  and  securely  buttoned  from  the  throat 
to  the  bottom ;  no  hood  nor  cape  for  the  wind  to  make  a 
sail  of,  only  one  good  broad  collar  for  turning  up  to  keep 
your  ears  and  neck  warm  while  promenading  the  deck  or 
sitting  in  your  steamer  chair ;  two  or  three  good  outside 
pockets  are  indispensable.  Never  venture  on  deck  with- 
out this  coat,  and  a  big  shawl  to  cover  your  feet  while 
sitting  down. 

Wear  an  ordinary  night-dress  in  your  berth,  and  have 
a  flannel  dressing-gown  made  without  any  lining  to  wear 
over  it  when  going  to  or  from  the  bath-rooms,  some 
of  which  are  very  luxurious  if  you  enjoy  bathing  in  sea- 
water.  Don't  fail  to  have  gauntlets  sewed  on  to  your 
gloves  to  keep  your  wrists  warm.  You  must  make  your 
own  selection  for  head-wear  ;  soft  felt  hats  are  very  com- 
fortable, but  not  always  becoming.  One  of  the  prettiest 
and  most  comfortable  head-coverings  for  ladies  over  30 
is  a  sort  of  Normandy  cap  or  bonnet  made  of  silk  with 
soft  crown  and  the  breast  of  a  grebe  on  one  side  ;  it  will 
not  spoil  or  get  out  of  shape  easily.  The  best  way  to 
dress  the  hair  is  to  make  a  smooth  coil  at  the  back  of  the 
neck  and  keep  the  front  tidy  by  brushing  each  time  you 
go  to  the  state-room  ;  frizzing  and  curling  are  impossible 
and  ludicrous.  A  pretty  opera-hood  will  do  good  service 
for  a  change. 

If  the  weather  is  very  warm  on  the  day  you  are  to 
sail,  carry  your  steamer-clothes  in  your  shawl-strap  and 
wear  a  dress  that  will  do  you  service  for  a  change  on  the 
journey.  On  your  arrival  in  Europe  put  the  same  dress 
on  to  go  ashore  and  put  your  steamer-clothes  into  the 
little  trunk,  taking  out  the  underclothing,  which  will 
now  be  soiled,  and  put  it  into  your  shawl-strap.  Leave 
your  steamer-trunk,  chair,  shawls,  etc.,  with  the  steam- 
ship  company,  subject  to  your    order   or  return.     Put 


58  HOW  TO  TRA\'EL. 

your  name  in  full,  and  make  all  into  one  package,  if 
possible. 

The  large  trunk  is  a  Saratoga,  36  inches  long,  23  high, 
and  20  inches  in  width.  There  is  only  one  tray,  one  end  of 
which  has  a  separated  compartment  for  bonnets  or  hats, 
and  it  is  quite  large  enough  to  contain  three  without 
injury  if  properly  packed  round  with  tissue  paper  to  pre- 
vent their  falling  from  side  to  side.  The  other  two-thirds 
of  the  tray  is  open  and  flat.  Here  are  collars,  cuffs, 
gloves,  ribbons,  pocket-handkerchiefs,  a  few  bright  bows, 
ready  looped  or  tied,  for  hair,  neck,  and  corsage,  eight 
pairs  of  stockings,  such  as  I  wear  ordinarily,  four  pairs 
extra  thick  for  cold  weather,  or  for  mountain  climbing, 
one  small  box  in  one  corner  for  cuff-buttons  and  some 
inexpensive  jewelry  which  can  be  worn  without  constant 
fear  of  losing.  One  little  plump  pincushion  with  plenty 
of  short  shawl-pins,  three  or  four  long  hat-pins  and  plenty 
of  black  and  white,  small  ones,  some  safety-pins,  and  a  few 
needles  on  the  under  side.  Make  a  loop  at  one  corner  to 
hang  it  up  by. 

Into  the  convex  portion  of  the  lid  (which  has  a  separate 
cover  with  hook  to  fasten),  are  three  pairs  of  boots,  one  for 
dress,  one  for  walking,  and  one  extra  stout  pair  for  bad 
weather.  Into  the  remaining  space  I  have  put  a  shawl  and 
wrap,  which  will  not  spoil  by  being  put  into  so  small  a 
space ;  also  my  bathing-suit  of  blue  flannel,  which  is 
always  kept  in  a  rubber  water-proof  bag,  with  drawing 
strings,  thereby  making  it  portable  whether  wet  or  dr\-, 
which  is  a  great  convenience,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
for  the  reason  that  when  you  take  it  off  you  can  imme- 
diately put  it  into  the  bag,  draw  the  strings  together  and 
carr}-  it  back  by  them  to  your  hotel  to  be  dried  by  the 
chambermaid.  Never  leave  a  nice  bathing-suit  at  the 
bath-house  to  be  dried.     If  you  do,  the  probability  is  that 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  59 

when  you  need  it  you  will  find  it  wet  from  some  one  else 
having  worn  it,  and  the  buttons  off  at  the  places  where 
they  are  most  needed.  There  is  yet  space  enough  left  in 
this  little  convexity  for  a  few  books,  and  also  for  a 
small  bundle  of  things  for  a  friend  whom  I  wish  to 
remember. 

"When  all  these  things  are  taken  out  for  use  on  arrival,  the 
space  is  very  convenient  for  soiled  clothing,  it  being  quite 
separate  and  distinct  from  any  other  compartment.  Do 
your  own  packing  if  you  do  not  keep  a  maid.  Have  a 
place  for  everything,  so  that  when  you  want  anything  in 
a  hurry,  or  you  feel  tired,  you  will  not  have  that  inter- 
minable bug-bear  of  "  having  to  unpack  everything  to  find 
it."  Many  a  good  manager  or  housekeeper  seems  perfectly 
lost  when  she  contemplates  the  possibility  of  "  living  in  a 
trunk,"  as  it  is  vulgarly  called.  But  if  she  will  bring 
some  of  her  good  common  sense  to  bear  upon  these 
smaller  details,  she  will  find  it  not  only  adds  greatly  to  her 
own  comfort,  but  it  will  save  her  friends  from  the  depres- 
sion of  listening  to  her  uninteresting  complainings. 

Now  we  lift  out  the  tray,  which  has  two  strong  loops 
for  that  purpose.  You  can  do  it  yourself,  for  it  is  not 
heavy,  having  no  heavy  articles  placed  in  it. '  Into  the 
body  of  the  trunk  put  all  undergarments  first.  Don't  roll 
anything  up ;  lay  all  as  smooth  and  even  as  possible. 
About  twelve  of  each  article  will  last  you  twenty  days. 
Whatever  the  season  of  the  year,  don't  fail  to  take  a 
couple  of  flannel  skirts  and  some  warm  underflannels  for 
extra  cold  or  damp  days,  and  before  dressing  each  morn- 
ing take  a  peep  at  the  sky  and  ask  the  weather  which 
kind  of  undergarment  you  shall  put  on,  thick  or  thin  ? 
One  of  the  greatest  comforts  for  breakfast  wear  is  a 
wrapper  of  very  dark,  soft  summer  silk  costing  about  50 
or  60  cents  per  yard ;  line  it  throughout  with  unbleached 


60  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

muslin ;  twelve  yards  of  silk  will  make  it  if  cut  sparingly, 
a  la  prijicesse  robe,  loose  in  front  with  demi  train.  Trim 
the  front  from  the  throat  to  the  bottom  of  the  skirt  with 
some  cheap  cream  color  or  black  lace,  with  a  few  bright 
bows  of  your  favorite  colored  ribbon,  about  one  inch  wide, 
tack  some  of  the  lace  in  pleats  round  the  neck  and  fasten 
securely  down  the  front  with  buttons  concealed  under  the 
lace,  put  a  patch  pocket  on  each  side  with  one  bow  on 
each,  one  bow  and  a  little  of  the  lace  on  each  sleeve,  and 
you  have  a  dress  that  will  not  spoil  if  you  wish  to  lie 
down.  It  is  always  tidy  with  or  without  a  corset.  You 
can  go  through  the  halls  of  the  hotels  in  it,  and  if  indisposed 
you  can  receive  your  intimate  friends  without  making  a 
change.  It  will  do  more  service  than  a  dozen  dressing- 
sacques,  and  it  saves  washing,  which  is  quite  an  item  to 
the  economical. 

One  black  grenadine  walking  dress,  made  fashionably, 
looks  pretty  for  evening  wear,  but  it  must  be  lined 
throughout.  No  transparent  sleeves  and  neck  for  rheuma- 
tism and  consumption.  One  black  silk  made  to  wear 
wath  or  without  extra  wraps  for  the  street.  One  black  or 
very  dark  green,  or  smoke-color  cashmere  for  rougher 
wear,  trimmed  with  satin  bands,  will  not  catch  the  dust 
and  looks  handsome.  One  India  silk  and  one  alpaca 
ulster  with  plenty  of  pockets,  and  if  you  have  a  couple  of 
dresses  which  you  wish  to  finish  wearing  out,  see  that  the 
skirt  braid  is  in  good  order  and  take  them  along  to  wear 
under  the  ulsters,  for  railroad  traveling,  staging,  etc.  See 
that  the  ulsters  fit  properly.  Don't  imagine  that  because 
the  material  is  thin  it  will  accommodate  itself  to  your 
shape.  Have  the  silk  one  washed  as  often  as  required, 
and  it  will  look  like  new  every  time.  A  blue  gauze  veil 
worn  with  either  of  these  ulsters  looks  stylish,  and  a  soft 
felt  hat,  if  suitable  to  your  face,  will  be  the  most  comfortable 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  61 

for  your  head.  Put  a  wing  or  bow  of  ribbon  on  the  left 
side,  but  no  ostrich  feathers.  I  would  remark  that  a  due 
regard  should  be  given  to  the  color  of  the  bonnet  or  hat, 
also  to  tows  of  ribbon  or  lace,  selected  to  be  worn  with 
the  dresses.  The  reason  is  obvious,  viz.,  when  traveling 
from  place  to  place  you  have  very  little  time  for  dressing 
and  arranging  becoming  toilets,  therefore — do  n't  mix 
things.  Put  on  each  article  which  is  intended  to  be  worn 
with  its  particular  dress,  and  instead  of  the  fatigue  of 
"  changing  your  dress  "  every  time  you  go  somewhere,  you 
will  have  only  to  put  on  bonnet,  gloves,  and  wrap,  and 
there  you  are,  smiling  and  ready  in  three  minutes.  Hus- 
bands, brothers,  and  fellow-travelers  will  appreciate  this 
when  they  find  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  ask  you,  "  How 
long  will  it  take  you  to  get  ready  ? " 

Get  a  yard  and  a  half  of  unbleached  glazed  linen  and 
bind  it  all  round  with  wide  red  worsted  braid.  Put  this 
into  the  trunk  with  a  good  long  shawl-strap,  also  your 
umbrella  and  parasol.  One  black  parasol  with  white  lin- 
ing will  do  for  every  dress,  and  look  as  if  it  were  made 
for  each  one  in  particular.  You  will  not  need  any  of 
these  things  on  the  voyage,  so  you  can  put  "^t*/^"  in 
large  letters  on  the  trunk,  and  that  will  insure  you  against 
the  temptation  of  opening  it  on  the  steamer.  When  you 
arrive  at  the  end  of  your  ocean  journey,  you  will  appreci- 
ate the  comfort  of  having  everything  to  your  hand  di- 
rectly you  open  your  trunk. 

Rest  for  one  night  (at  least)  at  the  place  of  landing, 
whether  Queenstown,  Liverpool,  Havre,  or  elsewhere,  and 
have  your  soiled  linen  washed.  If  at  an  English  port, 
you  will  probably  go  on  to  London  for  your  first  sight- 
seeing ;  if  at  Havre,  your  destination  will  probably  be 
Paris.  In  either  case  you  will  find  it  pleasant  to  stop  over 
night  at  one  or  other  of  the  most  attractive  towns  on  the 


62  HOW  TO  TRA^'EL. 

way,  and  for  your  greater  comfort  you  will  take  out  one 
complete  change  of  clothes,  viz.,  a  fresh  dress  and  some 
under-linen,  and  your  lace-trimmed  wrapper.  Spread  the 
afore-mentioned  "  linen  wrap  "  out  smooth,  lay  your  dress 
lengthwise  in  the  center  first,  then  put  the  other  things 
on  top  (lengthwise  also),  and  lastly  your  umbrella  and 
parasol.  Fold  each  side  of  the  linen  cover  over  so  as  to 
nearly  meet  in  the  center,  and  then  roll  up  from  end  to 
end,  and  put  your  shawl-strap  around  it.  This,  and  your 
dressing-bag,  is  your  baggage  when  you  expect  to  be  away 
from  your  trunk  for  a  few  nights.  Send  the  trunk  on  by 
petite  Vitesse^  or  ordinary  freight,  to  your  ultimate  destina- 
tion. It  will  make  an  appreciable  difference  in  your  ex- 
penses, and  like  a  thoughtful  friend  it  will  be  waiting  for 
you  on  arrival,  and  will  have  secured  a  room  at  the  hotel 
to  which  it  has  been  addressed.  By  following  this  plan 
you  will  always  have  a  complete  change  with  you,  and 
will  be  relieved  from  the  bother  of  looking  after  a  trunk 
while  on  your  journey.  The  hotel  manager  can  always 
tell  you  about  forwarding  your  trunk,  and  the  porter  of  the 
hotel  will  attend  to  the  matter.  And  now  let  me  tell  you 
about  my  hand-bag  and  what  it  contains. 

The  best  satchels,  and  the  most  convenient,  are  those 
which  open  very  wide  and  display  their  contents  without 
obliging  one  to  hunt  for  each  little  article  needed. 

Fold  a  nice  clean  night-dress  in  a  piece  of  paper  and 
place  it  in  the  bottom.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  have  such 
a  necessity  so  handy  in  cases  of  late  arrival  at  hotels, 
great  fatigue,  and  possible  accident.  Don't  forget  a 
clean  towel.  A  good-sized  sponge,  in  a  water-proof 
bag  long  enough  to  contain  e  tooth  or  nail-brush  (some  of 
these  bags  have  a  separate  pocket  for  the  brushes),  have 
a  piece  of  soap  in  a  tight  metallic  soap-box ;  one  good-sized 
bottle  of  cologne-water  or  bay  rum,  well  corked ;  one  pow- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  bO 

der-box,  with  cover  screwed  on  firmly  ;  one  medium-sized 
hand-mirror ;  a  small  bag  (with  drawing  string),  into 
which  you  have  put  plenty  of  buttons,  spools  of  silk, 
thread,  needles,  and  thimbles. 

One  thin  blotter  containing  writing-materials,  and 
which  is  small  enough  to  lay  flat  against  one  side  of  the 
hand-bag,  and  can  be  slipped  in  and  out  without  disarrang- 
ing the  other  things,  small  bottle  of  ink,  with  screw  or 
spring  top,  a  couple  of  pens,  and  plenty  of  pencils.  Comb 
and  brush  in  a  bag  made  for  the  purpose  out  of  a  dark 
silk  handkerchief  or  a  piece  of  chintz.  Silk  is  the  best 
because  it  will  not  so  easily  catch  the  dust.  There  is  al- 
ways a  little  pocket  on  one  side  of  bag  for  a  paper  of 
pins,  a  button-hook,  and  hair-pins,  also  a  pair  of  scissors. 

Put  everything  back  after  using,  and  make  your  hand- 
bag your  catch-all  in  the  state-room,  and  when  the  weather 
is  rough  you  have  only  to  close  it  and  so  keep  everything 
secure  and  in  its  right  place.  When  going  a  journey  by 
rail  put  in  your  guide-book  and  a  magazine.  Also,  a  com- 
mon fan  on  top  to  be  easily  reached. 

For  a  becoming  head-covering  to  wear  in  railroad  car- 
riages, and  to  keep  the  dust  from  your  hair  when  you  wish 
to  rest  your  head,  which  often  gets  tired  from  wearing  a 
hat  for  several  hours,  take  a  gentleman's  small-sized  silk 
pocket  handkerchief,  of  becoming  color,  and  trim  the  edges 
with  some  cheap  black  Spanish  lace,  gathering  it  round  the 
corners  so  it  will  lie  flat  and  round.  Fold  it  crosswise,  and 
lay  it  with  two  corners  on  the  top  of  the  head,  and  tie  the 
other  two  together  either  under  the  chin  or  back-hair. 
Then  make  two  little  pleats  on  each  side  of  the  head  near 
the  temples,  making  it  fit  the  arch  of  the  head  nicely,  and 
you  will  find  that  it  is  very  comfortable,  and  takes  up  little 
room  in  your  bag. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DAILY  LIFE  AT  SEA. 

On  shipboard  you  may  rise  as  early  or  sleep  as  late  as 
you  choose,  provided  you  do  not  extend  your  slumbers 
beyond  the  breakfast-hour ;  you  are  not  by  any  means 
compelled  to  get  up  when  the  bell  rings,  but  it  is  best  to 
do  so  unless  prevented  by  illness.  You  will  find  the  fresh 
air  of  the  deck  invigorating,  and  a  better  appetizer  than 
all  the  cordials  or  other  stimulants  in  the  possession  of 
the  bar-keeper,  and  besides,  the  room-steward  desires  to 
put  your  cabin  in  order  sometime  during  the  forenoon. 
Time  is  kept  on  shipboard  by  "  bells,"  and  those  who  wish 
to  show  their  familiarity  with  the  sea  are  in  the  habit  of 
dropping  the  ordinary-  nomenclature  of  the  hours  and 
reckoning  by  the  sound  of  the  bell.  The  nautical  day 
begins  at  noon,  and  all  calculations  regarding  the  move- 
ments of  the  ship  are  made  with  12  M.  as  the  starting- 
point.  A  little  practice  and  observation  will  accustom 
the  landsman  to  "  ship's  time,"  and  afford  him  a  slight  dis- 
traction when  inclined  to  think  the  voyage  a  monotonous 
.one. 

The  bell  strikes  every  half-hour  from  noon  to  noon 
again,  the  even  strokes  representing  complete  hours,  and 
the  odd  numbers  the  half-hours.  The  marine  day  is  di- 
vided into  "  watches  "  of  four  hours  each,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  period  from  4  p.  m.  to  8  P.  M.,  which  forms  two 
divisions  of  two  hours  each,  known  as  "dog-watches." 
The  object  of  this  arrangement  is  to  prevent  the  same 

(64) 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  65 

men  being  on  duty  at  the  same  time  day  after  day,  as  they 
would  be  if  the  whole  twenty-four  hours  were  divided  into 
unbroken  watches  of  four  hours  each.  The  crew  is  di- 
vided into  "  watches  "  that  relieve  each  other  every  four 
hours,  with  the  exception  of  the  "  dog-watch"  just  de- 
scribed. These  divisions  of  the  men  are  known  as  star- 
board and  larboard,  or  starboard  and  port,  and  each  watch 
has  an  officer  in  charge  of  it.  The  captain  does  not 
*'  stand  his  watch  "  like  the  other  officers,  and  when  the 
weather  is  fine  and  everything  lovely  he  has  little  to  do. 
But  when  a  gale  arises,  or  the  ship  is  enveloped  in  fog,  it 
is  a  time  of  great  anxiety  for  him,  and  sometimes  there 
are  days  together  when  he  hardly  leaves  the  bridge  for 
more  than  a  few  minutes  at  a  time.  The  prudent  passen- 
ger will  avoid  speaking  to  him  during  this  anxious  period, 
and  it  is  a  good  rule  never  to  address  the  captain  until  he 
has  first  spoken  to  you.  For  the  most  part,  the  transat- 
lantic captains  are  genial  and  inclined  to  be  sociable,  but 
you  will  now  and  then  encounter  one  who  evidently  de- 
scended from  a  bear  or  some  other  ill-mannered  animal,  if 
the  theories  of  Charles  Darwin  are  correct. 

To  know  the  hour  at  sea  by  the  bell  remember  the  fol- 
lowing :  At  half  an  hour  past  noon  there  is  a  single 
stroke  of  the  bell,  and  at  one  o'clock  there  are  two  strokes. 
At  half-past  one  we  have  three  strokes,  and  at  two  o'clock 
four  strokes.  Thus  it  goes  on,  adding  a  single  stroke 
every  half-hour  till  four  o'clock,  when  "  eight  bells  "  are 
struck.  As  before  explained,  the  time  from  four  to  eight 
is  divided  into  two  short  watches,  and  at  eight  o'clock  a  full 
watch  begins,  in  which  the  hours  are  sounded  the  same  as 
from  noon  to  4  P.  M.  This  watch  ends  at  midnight  and 
is  followed  by  another  till  4  A.  M.;  from  4  to  8  a.  M.  is 
another,  and  from  8  a.  m.  till  noon  is  another.  If  you 
happen  to  wake  in  the  night  and  hear  five  bells  you  may 


66  HOW  TO   TRAVEL. 

know  that  it  is  half-past  two,  unless  you  have  gone  to  bed 
very  early,  and  slept  briefly,  in  which  case  it  may  be  half- 
past  ten.  But  as  the  lights  are  not  put  out  till  ii  P.  M., 
and  on  some  ships  at  11.30,  you  are  not  very  liable  to  mis- 
take the  time  of  one  watch  for  another. 

And  while  we  are  talking  about  watches  we  will  con- 
sider the  one  you  have  in  your  pocket.  The  change  of 
longitude  in  a  transatlantic  voyage  implies  a  correspond- 
ing change  of  time.  There  is  a  difference  of  four  hours 
and  fift)--six  minutes  between  New  York  and  London,  /.  e., 
when  it  is  noon  in  New  York  it  is  fifty-six  minutes  past 
four  in  the  afternoon  at  London.  This  variation  of  time 
is  spread  over  the  transatlantic  voyage  and  amounts  to  not 
far  from  half  an  hour  daily  with  the  majority  of  steamers. 
When  going  to  the  east  a  ship's  day  is  actually  only  twen- 
ty-three and  a  half  hours  long,  while  it  is  twenty-four  and 
a  half  when  she  is  on  her  westward  course.  This  may  ac- 
count for  the  fact  that  steamers  make  their  best  daily  runs 
when  their  prows  are  pointed  towards  the  setting  sun. 

If  you  have  a  costly  watch  it  is  not  well  to  change  it 
daily  to  correspond  with  the  ship's  time.  Let  it  run  with- 
out alteration  till  you  are  at  the  end  of  the  journey,  and 
depend  on  the  bells  or  the  cabin  clock  for  the  actual  hours. 
The  writer  has  found  that  a  cheap  watch — such  as  can 
be  bought  for  five  or  ten  dollars — is  an  excellent  adjunct 
to  a  valuable  gold  one  when  traveling.  It  can  be  altered 
daily  to  correspond  with  the  change  of  longitude,  and  if 
it  is  left  around  carelessly  there  is  little  danger  that  any 
intelligent  thief  will  care  to  steal  it.  In  a  journey  around 
the  world  he  changed  the  hour  of  his  pocket-chronometer 
only  five  times — at  San  Francisco,  Tokio,  Calcutta,  Na- 
ples, and  Paris — and  depended  upon  his  "  brass  "  watch 
for  daily  service. 

So  much  for  keeping  time  on  shipboard  ;  let  us  see  how 


now  TO   TRAVEL.  C7 

we  can  spend  it.  Carry  enough  books  to  give  you  ten  or 
twelve  hours  reading  every  day,  and  if  you  get  through 
a  quarter  of  them  you  will  be  lucky.  You  will  find  an 
unaccountable  disinclination  to  read,  especially  if  you 
have  been  very  active  just  previous  to  departure,  and  will 
develop  a  decided  tendency  for  sleep.  What  with  sleep- 
ing, and  eating,  and  associating  with  other  passengers,  you 
find  no  great  amount  of  time  for  literature,  and  unless  you 
devote  yourself  to  a  blood-curdling  novel,  in  which  you 
are  constantly  on  the  strain  to  know  how  the  plot  ended, 
and  whether  she  married  him  or  the  other  man,  you  can 
only  get  through  a  few  pages  at  a  time.  If  you  are  going 
abroad  for  the  first  time  it  is  advisable  to  confine  the  read- 
ing to  descriptions  of  the  countries  you  are  about  to  visit, 
rather  than  to  light  literature,  but,  if  you  are  determined 
to  stick  to  fiction,  you  will  find  sea-stories  more  inter- 
esting than  land  ones,  for  the  reason  that  you  are  on  the 
great  deep,  and  the  pictures  of  the  novel  will  be  more 
vivid  than  if  the  book  were  read  on  shore. 

A  ship  is  a  world,  and  the  ocean  is  the  measureless 
azure  in  which  it  floats.  Sea  and  sky  are  your  boundaries, 
and  the  horizon-line  is  ever  the  same.  The  weaknesses  of 
human  nature,  as  well  as  its  noble  qualities,  are  developed 
here,  and  sometimes  they  are  limned  in  sharper  outlines 
than  on  land.  Persons  whom  you  have  known  for  years 
will  develop  on  shipboard  qualities  that  you  never  sus- 
pected them  of  possessing.  You  had  always  thought 
your  neighbor  on  the  right  was  a  selfish  mortal,  but  you 
now  find  that  he  is  self-sacrificing  to  the  extreme ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  man  whom  you  believed  a  model  of  po- 
liteness turns  out  to  be  quite  the  reverse.  Never  in  your 
life  have  you  heard  as  much  gossip  in  a  month  as  you  now 
hear  in  a  single  week ;  the  occupation,  character,  pecu- 
liarities, hopes,  desires,  and  frailties  of  everybody  are  can- 


68  now  TO   TRAVEL. 

vassed  by  a  goodly  proportion  of  busy  tongues,  and  the 
ship  will  very  likely  impress  you  as  a  school  for  scandal 
which  Sheridan  might  envy. 

Don't  take  a  share  in  the  gossip,  and  don't  concern 
yourself  about  the  private  affairs  of  anyone  else.  Be  po- 
lite to  everybody,  but  don't  be  in  a  hurry  to  make  ac- 
quaintances ;  by  so  doing  you  will  stand  higher  in  their 
estimation,  and  will  have  time  to  find  out  those  whom  you 
would  like  the  best.  A  shipful  of  passengers  is  generally 
broken  into  several  parties  of  persons  congenial  to  each 
other  ;  sometimes  the  groups  and  parties  are  on  the  best 
of  terms,  and  at  other  times  there  is  considerable  hostil- 
ity, generally  caused  by  a  few  turbulent  spirits,  not  always 
of  the  sterner  sex.  The  weather  has  much  to  do  with 
the  formation  of  cliques  on  an  ocean  steamer.  When  the 
sea  is  smooth  for  a  day  or  two  at  the  start  the  passengers 
become  generally  acquainted  and  are  agreeable  all  around. 
But  if  the  steamer  puts  her  prow  into  a  rough  sea  imme- 
diately on  leaving  port  those  of  tender  stomachs  disap- 
pear before  they  have  had  time  to  exchange  a  word  with 
a  stranger.  The  unruffled  ones  get  together,  the  men  in 
the  smoking-room,  and  the  ladies  in  the  cabin,  and  com- 
panionship begins.  By  the  time  the  sea  is  level  again, 
and  the  sea-sick  ones  appear,  the  circles  have  been  formed, 
and  some  of  them  closed  completely ;  then  the  new-comers 
form  rings  of  their  own,  and  out  of  these  primary  and  sec- 
ondary formations  jealousies  often  grow. 

Join  in  all  the  innocent  sports  that  while  away  the  time. 
By  day,  in  fine  weather,  there  are  quoits,  shuffle-board, 
and  other  games,  for  which  the  ship  furnishes  the  material, 
and  in  the  evening  there  are  impromptu  entertainments  of 
a  mixed  character  in  the  cabin.  Contribute  whatever  you 
can  to  the  general  fund  of  amusement,  and  if  you  can 
neither  sing,  recite,  tell  stories,  play  on  an  instrument,  or 


now  TO  thavel.  69 

do  anything  else  to  please  your  fellow  passengers,  try  and 
be  a  good  integral  part  of  the  audience.  You  can  look 
on  and  listen  at  any  rate,  and  with  a  little  practice  you  can 
do  it  well.  Perhaps  you  can  find  diversion  by  investing 
in  the  daily  pool  on  the  run  of  the  ship,  and,  when  com- 
ing westward,  there  is  the  inevitable  speculation  as  to  the 
number  of  the  boat  from  which  you  take  the  pilot.  But 
this  pool  business  is  sometimes  expensive,  and  if  your 
purse  is  thinly  lined  you  will  do  well  to  stay  out  of  it. 
The  smoking-room  affords  opportunities  for  dropping 
your  spare  cash  to  gentlemen  of  a  playful  turn  of  mind, 
and  there  are  usually  adepts  at  cards  who  will  accommo- 
date you  with  any  game  you  like.  The  Atlantic  is  crossed 
every  year  by  men  who  boast  that  they  are  always  able  to 
cover  their  expenses,  and  very  often  the  boast  is  far  below 
the  reality.  The  fashionable  steamers  are  sometimes  the 
scenes  of  very  high  play,  and  gambling  at  sea  seems  to  be 
on  the  increase  in  the  last  few  years.  They  can  never  be 
made  the  field  of  operations  similar  to  those  of  the  river 
and  railway  gamblers  of  America,  for  the  reason  that  there 
is  no  station  or  landing-place  where  a  performer  on  the 
cards  can  disappear  when  he  has  fleeced  his  victim,  but, 
at  present,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  busi- 
ness of  occasional  passengers  is  less  while  ashore  than 
when  afloat. 

If  you  have  any  complaints  to  make  address  them  to 
the  purser ;  it  is  his  business  to  look  after  the  welfare  of 
the  passengers,  and  he  nearly  always  does  it.  Where  you 
desire  to  make  a  first-class  row  you  can  appeal  from  the 
purser  to  the  captain,  and  if  they  are  not  on  the  best  of 
terms,  and  you  lay  your  schemes  carefully,  a  great  deal  of 
bad  blood  will  be  engendered.  As  a  last  resort,  you  can 
carry  the  affair  up  to  the  general  management  of  the  com- 
pany, where  complaints  are  investigated  with  more  or  less 


70  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

care,  and  satisfaction  is  given  or  refused.  The  great  com- 
petition  between  the  various  lines  causes  them  to  be  par- 
ticularly attentive  to  the  wants  of  passengers,  and  it  is 
very  rarely  that  one  hears  of  a  well-founded  complaint 
against  the  captain  or  purser  of  a  transatlantic  steamer. 
If  they  err  at  all  it  is  in  paying  too  much  attention  to  pas- 
sengers who  are  often  quite  willing  to  be  let  alone  after 
they  have  been  comfortably  settled  on  board. 

Never  attempt  to  go  on  the  "  bridge  "  which  is  exclu- 
sively reserved  for  the  officers  of  the  ship,  and  do  not  be 
anxious  to  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  the  engine-room  or 
handle  the  steering  apparatus.  On  some  of  the  ships  no- 
tices are  posted  requesting  passengers  not  to  speak  to  the 
officers  when  on  duty ;  it  is  well  to  heed  these,  and  also 
well  not  to  get  too  near  the  ropes  when  sails  are  being 
hoisted  or  taken  in.  When  the  ship  is  pitching  violently 
in  a  head  sea,  avoid  going  forward  on  deck,  as  you  may 
get  a  drenching  unexpectedly,  and  possibly  may  be  washed 
overboard.  Be  cautious  about  leaning  over  the  taffrail 
or  stern  at  any  time,  and  especially  in  rough  weather,  as 
the  ship  may  "jump  from  under  you  "without  the  least 
warning,  and  drop  you  in  the  sea.  Old  sailors  as  well  as 
landsmen  have  been  lost  in  this  way. 

The  hours  for  meals  vary  on  the  different  lines,  but 
whatever  the  arrangement,  there  is  no  danger  of  starva- 
tion. Most  of  the  English  lines  give  you  breakfast,  lunch, 
dinner,  and  supper,  four  meals  altogether,  and  all  of  them 
pretty  "  square "  ones.  The  breakfast  consists  of  fish, 
ham  and  eggs,  steaks,  chops,  Irish  stew,  hot  rolls,  and  a 
half  dozen,  or  perhaps  a  dozen,  other  things,  with  all  the 
tea  or  coffee  you  choose  to  drink.  Lunch  consists  of  cold 
meats  and  biscuits,  and  is  not  a  very  heavy  affair,  but  the 
dinner  is  of  that  solid  character  which  is  one  of  the  boasts 
of  British  libert}'.     You  can  eat  yourself  into  dyspepsia 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  71 

without  making  any  apparent  impression  on  the  abund- 
ance set  before  you,  and  if  you  try  to  go  through  the  bill 
of  fare  without  missing  anything,  you  will  wish  you  had  n't. 
Of  soups,  fish,  roasts,  boils,  stews,  and  fries,  there  is  ap- 
parently no  end ;  the  cooking  is  generally  good,  and  leads 
the  thoughtful  passenger  into  a  profound  admiration  of 
the  culinary  artists  of  the  sea.  And  it  also  leads  him  to 
wonder  why  so  much  is  prepared  when  comparatively  lit- 
tle is  eaten,  especially  in  the  first  touch  of  rough  weather, 
when  half  the  passengers  and  more  are  confined  to  their 
rooms,  and  a  goodly  number  of  the  other  half  display 
microscopic  appetites.  This  matter  has  been  discussed  by 
the  managers  of  the  lines ;  it  has  been  proposed  to  make 
the  experiment  of  serving  meals  on  the  "  European  plan," 
and  ultimately  to  abandon  the  old  system,  if  the  new  one 
is  found  acceptable.  Under  this  scheme  the  price  of  pas- 
sage would  be  reduced,  and  include  only  the  room  and 
transportation  ;  meals  would  be  served  as  in  a  restaurant, 
and  the  traveler  could  spend  much  money  or  little,  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  his  purse  and  appetite.  The  cost 
of  feeding  the  passengers  would  be  much  less  than  at 
present,  and  all  the  waste  would  be  borne  by  the  public, 
instead  of  the  company. 

For  supper  you  have  toast  and  cold  meats,  with  Welsh 
rarebits  and  other  things,  such  as  dreams  are  made  of,  and 
the  strong-hearted  Englishman  generally  washes  it  down 
with  a  bottle  of  ale  to  give  him  a  good  digestion.  Some 
of  the  companies  give  an  additional  meal  called  tea,  which 
runs  closely  into  the  supper ;  so  close  is  the  connection 
that  you  can  go  from  the  one  to  the  other  without  leaving 
the  table.  In  fact,  the  meals  are  so  numerous  that  they 
are  crowded  against  each  other,  and  you  are  hardly  through 
with  one  and  settled  into  your  chair  on  deck  before  you 
are  summoned  for  the  next.     But  if  even  these  are  not 


72  now   TO   TRA^-EL, 

sufficient  for  the  keen  appetite  and  hearty  digestion  you 
have  acquired  at  sea,  you  can  get  something  to  eat  between 
times  by  apiDlication  to  the  steward.  Verily,  there  is  lit- 
tle danger  of  starvation  on  a  voyage  by  trans-Atlantic 
steamer. 

On  the  French  line  the  arrangement  differs  somewhat 
from  the  English.  At  seven  in  the  morning,  tea  or  coffee 
is  given,  with  bread  and  butter  and  a  bowl  of  soup.  From 
half  past  nine  to  eleven  breakfast  is  served,  and  consists  of 
preliminary  appetizers,  such  as  radishes,  anchovies,  cold 
ham,  and  other  trifles,  followed  by  steaks,  chops,  eggs  in 
ever>-  form,  fish,  chicken,  and  similar  solids.  Then  comes 
a  selection  of  cheeses  and  fresh  and  dry  fruits,  and  the 
meal  ends  with  a  cup  of  black  coffee.  Dinner  is  at  half 
past  four,  and  resembles  the  continental  table  d'hote  ;  it  is 
served  in  courses,  and  is  sufficiently  comprehensive  to 
cover  the  demands  of  any  appetite  not  altogether  unrea- 
sonable. Wine,  either  white  or  red,  is  included  for  both 
brealcfast  and  dinner,  and  the  passenger  may  drink  as 
freely  of  it  as  he  likes.  Tea  is  served  at  eight  in  the  even- 
ing, and  there  is  a  light  lunch  of  cold  meats  at  one  o'clock. 
The  writer  has  fared  admirably  on  one  of  the  ships  of  the 
French  line,  and  on  a  subsequent  voyage  by  the  same 
steamer,  he  fared  badly ;  on  the  whole,  he  believes  the 
system  a  good  one,  and  acceptable  to  the  majority  of  the 
passengers. 

The  gastronomic  service  of  the  German  steamers  com- 
bines certain  features  of  the  French  and  English  lines, 
and  the  hours  for  meals  correspond  very  nearly  to  those 
of  the  latter.  The  cooking  is  Teutonic,  and  the  bill  of  fare 
includes  a  liberal  allowance  of  the  toothsome  sausage  and 
the  savory  sour-kraut.  There  is  less  waste  on  the  French 
and  German  steamers  than  on  the  English  ones ;  and  it 
has  been  remarked  that  the  sea  gulls  understand  the  mat- 


HOW  TO   TBAVEL.  73 

ter  very  clearly,  and  will  always  follow  an  English  ship  in 
preference  to  one  of  the  others,  for  the  reason  that  the 
chance  of  picking  up  a  delicate  morsel  that  has  been 
tossed  overboard  is  much  greater. 

Seats  at  table  are  assigned  by  the  chief  steward  or  taken 
by  the  passengers  when  they  go  on  board.  A  card  with 
the  name  of  the  individual  is  placed  at  the  desired  seat ; 
the  novice  might  suppose  that  this  would  be  sufficient  to 
retain  the  place,  but  it  is  not  so  by  any  means.  Other 
passengers,  who  desire  the  same  places,  will  remove  the 
cards  and  substitute  their  own,  and  sometimes  they  dis- 
play great  "  cheek  "  in  the  transaction.  It  is  best  to  have 
the  chief  steward  approve  your  selection  at  the  time  you 
make  it,  and  then  you  will  have  an  ajDpeal  in  case  of  the 
removal  of  your  card.  The  captain's  table  is  the  post  of 
honor,  and  the  location  of  the  greatest  dignity,  but  if  you 
are  not  specially  invited  by  the  commander  to  a  place 
there,  and  have  no  acquaintance  with  him,  it  is  best  not  to 
seek  it.  Sometimes  the  purser's  table  is  a  pleasant  one, 
and  sometimes  the  reverse  ;  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
the  doctor's  table.  Purser  and  doctor  are  proverbially 
good  fellows,  with  very  few  exceptions,  and  wherever  you 
may  be  seated,  your  fortune  in  eating  depends  more  on 
the  table  steward  than  on  any  one  of  the  officers.  When 
you  have  once  occupied  a  seat  at  dinner  you  retain  it 
through  the  voyage  unless  you  change  with  the  approval 
of  the  steward.  A  seat  in  the  middle  of  the  saloon  is 
preferred  by  some  to  one  near  the  side,  but  there  is  really 
very  little  difference  in  the  places,  so  far  as  the  motion  of 
the  ship  is  concerned.  Most  of  the  best  steamers  have 
adopted  the  revolving  seat,  so  that  you  may  come  to  or 
leave  your  place  without  disturbing  any  one,  which  is  not 
the  case  with  the  old-fashioned  bench.  Where  the  benches 
remain,  the  passenger  should  make  an  effort  to  secure  an 


74  HOW   TO  TRAVEL. 

end  seat,  especially  if  he  is  liable  to  sea-sickness  and  may 
suddenly  discover  some  day  that  he  doesn't  want  any 
more  dinner. 

If  the  chief  steward  assists  you  to  secure  a  desirable 
seat,  he  will  expect  a  pecuniary  compliment  for  the  ser- 
vice ;  on  most  ships  it  is  well  to  be  on  the  right  side  of 
him,  but  on  some  it  makes  no  difference.  The  first  time 
you  go  forward  beyond  a  certain  line  one  of  the  sailors 
will  chalk  your  boot,  or  draw  a  chalk-mark  around  you. 
This  is  a  time-honored  custom  of  extracting  a  shilling 
from  the  novice,  and  the  money  so  obtained  is  invested  in 
liquid  refreshments  for  the  crew.  There  is  only  a  single 
chalking  for  each  passenger  on  the  voyage  ;  after  he  has 
paid  the  penalty  once  he  may  go  forward  as  much  as  he 
pleases  without  danger  of  molestation. 

The  days  will  run  on  with  more  or  less  monotony,  ac- 
cording to  circumstances.  You  will  be  interested  in  trivial 
matters  ;  a  sail  that  is  a  mere  speck  on  the  horizon  will 
awaken  a  lively  discussion,  and  the  appearance  of  a  shark, 
or  a  school  of  porpoises,  is  sure  to  draw  at  least  half  the 
passengers  to  the  side  of  the  ship  to  watch  the  movements 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  sea.  The  birds  will  be  a  source 
of  amusement,  and  when  a  wearied  land  bird,  driven  far 
out  to  sea  by  the  wind,  and  with  strength  nearly  exhausted, 
lights  on  the  rigging,  the  excitement  rises  to  almost  fever 
heat.  What  he  is,  and  whence  he  came,  are  momentous 
questions,  and  if  he  can  be  caught  and  tamed,  as  some- 
times happens,  he  becomes  a  popular  pet  throughout  the 
ship.  Some  years  ago,  while  a  steamer  was  on  her  way 
to  New  York,  a  crow  came  on  board  a  hundred  miles  or 
so  from  the  Irish  coast.  He  was  caught  by  the  sailors, 
and  soon  became  perfectly  tame  and  fearless.  He  liked 
his  new  home  so  well  that  he  did  not  try  to  leave  it  when 
the  ship  returned  to  Ireland ;  he  continued  to  cross  and 


I 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  75 

re-cross  for  several  months,  till  he  was  accidentally  killed 
on  the  dock  in  New  York,  where  the  ship  was  lying. 

Land  is  in  sight,  and  we  will  prepare  for  shore.  The 
old  clothing  is  packed  away  for  deposit  in  the  store-room 
of  the  company  till  our  return,  and  the  steamer  chair  is 
folded,  tied,  and  tagged.  We  don  our  good  garments  and 
may  cause  a  sensation  to  those  who  have  seen  us  only  in 
the  habiliments  of  the  sea,  but  as  every  one  else  will  do 
likewise,  the  sensation  is  doubtful.  We  are  ready  for  the 
tender  that  takes  us  to  terra  firma,  where  the  formalities 
of  the  custom-house  await  us. 

As  we  leave  the  ship  that  has  brought  us  safely  over  the 
ocean,  it  will  be  no  discredit  to  our  manhood  if  we  say 
good-bye  to  her,  and  wish  her  many  prosperous  voyages. 
A  feeling  akin  to  affection  is  not  unfrequently  developed 
by  the  traveler  for  the  ship  that  has  carried  him,  and  ever 
after  he  will  take  a  personal  interest  in  her  fortunes.  A 
passenger  on  one  of  the  transatlantic  steamers  once  gave 
vent  to  his  sentiments  in  some  doggerel  verses,  of  which 
the  following  was  the  concluding  one  : — 

"Old  steamer,  good-bye,  there's  some  brine  in  my  eye; 
I  can't  say  where'll  be  our  next  meeting, 
But  wherever  it  is  I  shall  welcome  your  phiz., 
And  give  you  a  right  hearty  greeting." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

GOING  ON  SHORE.— HOTELS. 

The  English  and  French  custom-houses  are  not  as  diffi- 
cult to  pass  as  the  American,  and  the  examination  is  gen- 
erally quite  brief.  The  traveler  should  get  all  his  pieces 
together,  so  as  to  facilitate  the  labors  of  the  officials,  and 
if  he  has  anything  liable  to  duty  it  is  best  to  declare  it  be- 
fore any  questions  are  asked.  Spirits  and  tobacco  are  the 
things  mainly  looked  for,  and,  if  any  are  found  that  have 
not  been  declared,  they  are  liable  to  confiscation.  Where 
the  passenger  has  only  a  small  quantity  of  luggage  it  is 
generally  passed  without  being  opened ;  and  if  there  are 
several  trunks  they  investigate  every  second  or  third  one, 
making  the  selection  themselves.  It  is  well  not  to  have 
any  of  your  trunks  nicely  corded  and  made  up  for  a  long 
journey,  as  the  officers  have  learned  from  long  experience 
that  such  packages  are  more  liable  to  contain  contraband 
goods  than  any  other,  and  consequently  they  are  the  ones 
generally  chosen  to  be  opened. 

Landing  in  America  has  more  formality  than  landing  in 
England  or  France.  The  officers  come  on  board  at  quar- 
antine, and  while  the  ship  is  making  her  way  up  the  har- 
bor the  declarations  of  the  passengers  are  taken.  The 
number  and  character  of  each  one's  packages  is  marked  on 
a  blank,  to  which  is  appended  an  oath  to  the  effect  that 
the  passenger  has  told  the  truth.  He  receives  a  card  bear- 
ing the  number  of  his  declaration,  and  when  he  reaches  the 
dock  and  has  his  baggage  ready  for  examination,  he  pre- 

(76) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  77 

sents  his  ticket  to  the  officer  in  charge  ;  the  latter  assigns 
his  subordinate  who  is  to  conduct  the  examination,  and 
hands  him  the  declaration  that  the  passenger  has  made. 
If  the  number  and  character  of  the  packages  is  found  to 
be  correct,  and  no  dutiable  goods  are  discovered  that  have 
not  been  declared,  the  inspection  is  over  in  a  few  minutes, 
the  officer  puts  a  cabalistic  mark  on  each  article,  and  the 
passenger  may  then  breathe  freely.  Sometimes  the 
officials  conduct  the  search  with  a  great  deal  of  rigor,  and 
at  others  they  are  not  at  all  particular.  There  appears  to 
be  no  regular  system  about  the  business,  and  the  officials 
are  lax  or  vigilant,  according  to  the  temper  of  their  chief. 
A  change  in  the  office  of  collector  of  customs  at  New  York 
is  followed  by  a  great  deal  of  energy,  but  nobody  can  tell 
how  long  it  will  last.  On  some  occasions  the  inspectors 
have  actually  turned  the  contents  of  trunks  on  the  dock 
in  order  to  facilitate  their  examinations,  and  a  great  deal 
of  needless  rudeness  has  been  displayed  by  them. 

For  the  information  of  travelers,  the  following  caution 
is  published  : — 

"  All  articles  such  as  wearing  apparel,  not  having  been 
worn,  must  be  declared  at  the  custom-house.  Travelers 
not  conforming  to  this  regulation  will  incur  not  only  the 
confiscation  of  the  articles  not  declared,  but  also  the  pay- 
ment of  a  fine.  Silks,  laces,  and  other  foreign  goods, 
packed  with  articles  of  apparel,  or  otherwise  concealed, 
are,  as  well  as  the  articles  in  which  they  may  be  placed, 
liable  to  seizure ;  and  travelers  are  warned  that  the 
seizure  is  strictly  enforced,  unless  the  examining  offi- 
cer is  informed  of  the  articles  being  in  the  package,  and 
the  goods  duly  declared  before  it  is  opened." 

Clothing  in  actual  use  is  admitted  free  of  duty,  and  those 
who  return  home  with  a  supply  of  new  garments  should 
be  particular  to  wear  each  article  at  least  once,  in  order  to 


78  HOW   TO   TRAVEL. 

be  within  the  regulations.  Ladies  are  informed  that  a 
dress  that  has  simply  been  "  tried  on  "  is  considered  liable 
to  duty,  but  if  it  has  actually  been  worn  once  or  twice,  it 
is  admissible.  Gloves  are  exempt  from  this  condition, 
but  the  traveler  should  not  expect  to  import  a  large  quan- 
tity. The  strict  allowance  is  one  dozen  pairs,  but  in  most 
cases  three  or  four  dozen  may  be  carried  without  ques- 
tion. The  regulations  say  that  each  passenger  may  bring, 
free  of  duty,  a  fair  amount  of  clothing,  according  to  his 
condition  in  life,  a  statement  that  has  given  rise  to  a  great 
deal  of  dispute.  Half  a  dozen  costly  silk  dresses  of  the 
latest  fashion  would  be  manifestly  out  of  place  in  the 
baggage  of  Bridget  Maloney  in  the  steerage,  and  fresh 
from  the  bogs  of  Ireland,  while  they  would  be  regarded 
as  a  moderate  allowance  for  Miss  Flora  JM'Flimsey,  whose 
father  is  a  millionaire. 

In  the  continental  ports,  generally,  there  is  often  con- 
siderable delay  in  examining  baggage,  and  the  following 
regulations  have  been  made  to  facilitate  the  movements  of 
travelers  : — 

"  Passengers,  on  landing,  are  not  permitted  to  take  more 
than  one  small  bag  with  them  on  shore.  The  custom- 
house porters,  who  are  responsible  for  its  safet\',  convey 
it  direct  from  the  vessel  to  the  custom-house,  where  the 
owner,  to  save  personal  attendance,  had  better  send  the 
hotel  commissionaire  afterwards  with  the  keys.  The  land- 
lord of  the  inn  is  responsible  for  his  honesty." 

Leaving  the  custom-house  behind  you,  the  way  is  clear 
to  seek  a  hotel.  Generally  there  are  plenty  of  runners  at 
the  landing-place,  and  if  you  have  chosen  the  establish- 
ment where  you  are  to  stop,  you  have  only  to  name  it,  an.! 
the  runner  for  that  house  will  step  forward  to  take  char, 
of  yourself  and  your  belongings.  Sometimes  the  baggai^. 
is  taken  on  the  cab  or  carriage  which  carries  you,  and  at 


HOW   TO   TKAVEL.  79 

Others  it  is  intrusted  to  licensed  porters,  who  are  respon- 
sible for  its  safe  delivery,  and  can  be  trusted  without  much 
hesitation.  As  far  as  possible,  it  is  best  to  keep  your  bag- 
gage always  with  you  when  traveling,  but  there  are  many 
instances  where  it  is  not  convenient  to  do  so.  Before  you 
leave  the  custom-house  there  are  some  fees  to  be  paid  to 
the  porters  who  have  handled  your  luggage,  but  none  to 
the  officers  who  examined  it.  You  will  find,  too,  that  the 
man  who  puts  it  on  the  carriage  desires  to  be  remembered, 
and  you  discover  very  early  in  your  travels  that  you  are 
in  the  land  of  fees.  If  you  are  in  charge  of  the  hotel  run- 
ner you  can  let  him  settle  these  matters,  or,  if  you  prefer 
to  attend  to  them  yourself,  you  can  do  so,  but  you  run  the 
risk  of  giving  too  much.  The  runner  is  not  always  to  be 
trusted,  as  he  sometimes  has  a  secret  arrangement  with  the 
porters  to  compel  strangers  to  bleed  freely  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  is  to  receive  the  surplus.  For  putting  the 
ordinary  baggage  of  a  traveler  through  the  custom-house 
and  on  the  top  of  a  cab,  a  shilling  is  sufficient,  and  if  it  is 
handled  by  two  persons  they  should  be  satisfied  with  a 
sixpence  each. 

It  is  best  to  ask  the  hotel  proprietor  to  settle  for  your 
cab  rather  than  attempt  it  yourself.  It  is  next  to  impos- 
sible to  ascertain  from  a  driver  how  much  he  is  legally  en- 
titled to ;  he  either  lies  about  it,  or  will  not  give  a  direct 
answer.  He  will  "  leave  it  to  the  gentleman,"  and  the 
more  you  persist  in  knowing,  the  more  he  will  "  leave  it  to 
your  honor."  And  finally  when  you  make  a  venture,  and 
through  fear  of  giving  too  little  give  too  much,  the  chances 
are,  five  to  one,  he  will  declare  himself  under-paid,  and 
demand  more.  He  promises  beforehand  to  leave  it  to  you, 
but  rarely  does,  and  therein  is  the  aggravating  part  of  the 
business.  The  only  way  to  do  under  such  circumstances 
is  to  walk  off  and  leave  him  to  shower  imprecations  on 


80  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

you ;  if  you  prefer  peace  and  quietness  you  will  pay  what 
he  demands.  This  payment  will  be  followed  by  a  request 
for  an  additional  something  for  drinking  your  health,  and 
possibly  by  a  hint  that  the  horse  is  hungry,  and  a  trifle  to 
buy  oats  would  be  appreciated  by  the  beast.  Do  n't  ex- 
pect a  driver  in  the  United  Kingdom  to  change  a  coin 
for  you ;  his  pockets  may  be  bulging  with  shillings  and 
sixpences,  but  he  declares  with  the  most  solemn  face  that 
he  has  no  change,  and  possibly  insists  that  you  are  the 
first  patron  he  has  had  for  two  days. 

Our  coiD3--books  at  school  generally  inform  us  that  the 
horse  is  a  noble  animal.  No  one  will  be  likely  to  dispute 
the  statement,  as  we  all  have  a  respect  for  the  horse,  and 
many  of  us  are  familiar  with  incidents  that  show  his  ex- 
cellent character.  But,  admitting  his  nobility,  it  is  a  little 
singular  that  he  should  be  associated  with  so  much  that  is 
the  reverse  of  noble,  or  rather  that  the  great  majority  of 
those  who  associate  with  him  are  inclined  to  rascality. 
The  whole  race  of  hackmen  and  cabmen,  from  one  end  of 
the  world  to  the  other,  are  distinguished  for  their  swindling 
tendencies;  horse-trading  and  horse-jockepng  are  syno- 
nj-ms  of  cheating,  and  the  race-track  is  the  resort  of  scoun- 
drels of  all  grades  and  kinds.  If  the  traveler  is  not  prepared 
to  accept  this  proposition  before  landing  in  the  old  world,  he 
will  have  excellent  opportunities  to  verify  it  before  he  has 
been  a  month  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  English  hotels  the  traveler  will  find  many  things 
to  remind  him  that  he  is  not  in  the  United  States.  In- 
stead of  an  office  with  a  marble  counter,  a  heavy  register, 
and  a  clerk  gorgeous  as  to  hair  and  sparkling  as  to  breast- 
pin, he  finds  a  little  window  opening  into  a  room  only  a 
few  feet  square,  and  behind  the  window  a  woman.  She 
takes  his  application  for  lodging,  and  as  he  peers  into  the 
nook  where  she  sits  he  wonders  how  the  New  York  hotel 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  81 

clerk  would  get  along  in  such  narrow  limits.  Perhaps  he 
may  see  a  door  opening  beyond  the  office  into  an  equally 
small  apartment,  where  the  book-keeper  is  stationed,  and, 
in  many  instances,  he  finds  that  the  accounts  are  kept  by 
one  of  the  gentler  sex. 

In  many  hotels  not  a  man  is  visible  about  the  office, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  the  porter,  and  the  entire 
management  is  in  feminine  hands.  The  proprietor  is  rare- 
ly seen,  and  even  the  manager,  where  there  is  a  mascu- 
line one,  is  a  personage  who  is  reached  with  more  or  less 
difficulty.  At  a  famous  hotel  in  Ireland,  which  bears  the 
name  of  its  proprietor,  the  story  goes  that  a  gentleman 
asked  one  day  if  that  individual  was  in. 

"  He's  in  his  private  office,  sir,"  was  the  reply. 

"  Say  that  I  wish  to  see  him  a  moment,"  said  the  gen- 
tleman, who  was  a  London  merchant  of  considerable  prom- 
inence, and  well  known  as  a  frequent  patron  of  the  hotel. 

The  clerk  disappeared,  and  shortly  returned  with  the 
following  message  : — 

"  Mr.  is  engaged  at  present  over  some  papers, 

and  will  send  his  secretary  out  in  a  few  minutes  to  see 
what  you  want." 

The  American  will  miss  the  wide  corridors  of  the  hotels 
of  his  native  land,  and  he  finds  the  space  usually  given 
up  to  the  public  in  the  United  States  is  here  reserved  for 
the  strict  use  of  the  house.  There  are  no  broad  reading- 
rooms  and  parlors,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  papers  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  as  in  the  great  hostelries  at 
home ;  the  bar  is  a  dingy  nook,  scarcely  larger  than  the 
office,  and  the  most  conspicuous  ornaments  in  it  are  the 
handles  of  the  beer-pumps.  The  bartender  is  absent, 
and  in  his  place  the  bar-maid  presides ;  those  who  are  bib- 
ulously  inclined  will  find  comparatively  little  to  tempt 
them,  as  the  array  of  "  mixed  drinks,"  so  common  in  an 


82  HOW  TO  TRAVEL, 

American  bar,  is  practically  unknown  in  England.  A  few 
drinking  establishments  in  London  have  sought  to  at- 
tract the  patronage  of  strangers  from  the  United  States 
by  advertising  "  American  drinks,"  but  those  who  have 
tried  them  say  that  the  British  concoctions  are  base  coun- 
terfeits of  the  great  originals. 

In  some  hotels  there  is  no  public  bar  whatever,  and 
drinks  are  served  to  order  in  the  dining  and  smoking- 
rooms,  or  in  the  private  apartments.  Smoking  is  usually 
forbidden  in  the  corridors,  and  sometimes  the  stranger 
who  ventures  to  light  a  cigar  in  his  private  room  will  be 
told  that  he  is  violating  the  rules,  and  must  go  to  the 
smoking-room. 

In  the  last  few  years  the  English  appear  to  have  taken 
a  hint  from  their  transatlantic  cousins  in  the  way  of  hotel- 
keeping,  and  several  establishments  containing  many  of 
the  American  features  have  sprung  into  existence.  The 
most  of  them  have  been  successful,  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  crop  will  increase. 

Bedrooms  in  the  English  hotels  are  usually  larger  than 
in  American  houses,  and  furnished  on  a  more  liberal  scale. 
The  beds  are  spacious,  and  frequently  you  find  an  old- 
fashioned  four-poster  of  considerable  antiquity',  together 
with  others  that  were  fashioned  in  the  present  time.  A 
hotel  in  Liverpool  boasts  of  a  bed  in  which  Oliver  Crom- 
well once  slept,  and  certainly  he  could  have  occupied  it 
without  being  cramped  for  space.  Those  who  are  liable 
to  colds  and  rheumatic  pains  should  be  particular  to  have 
the  sheets  well  aired  and  dried  before  retiring  ;  the  moist 
climate  of  the  British  Islands  is  apt  to  leave  a  disagreea- 
ble dampness  on  bed-linen,  and  make  it  very  detrimental 
to  the  general  health.  Many  a  man  has  taken  a  severe 
cold  by  sleeping  in  damp  sheets  on  his  arrival  in  England, . 
and  discovered  to  his  sorrow  that  his  recovery  was  a  thinj 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  83 

of  several  weeks,  if  not  longer.  The  prevailing  moisture 
of  the  United  Kingdom  is  an  excellent  thing  for  the  ruddy 
cheeks  of  the  women,  and  beneficial  to  the  potato  crop, 
but  the  stranger  is  not  usually  enamored  of  it,  especially 
if  he  comes  from  a  region  where  dry  atmosphere  is  the 
fashion. 

There  are  only  a  very  few  hotels  where  the  traveler  is 
received  on  the  American  system,  and  pays  a  lump  sum 
per  day  for  everything.  The  engagement  is  nearly  always 
for  the  room  alone,  and  all  meals  are  charged  extra,  and 
may  be  taken  wherever  the  customer  chooses.  There  is 
an  extra  item  for  "  attendance,"  and  custom  has  fixed  this 
at  one  shilling  and  sixpence  at  the  majority  of  the  Eng- 
lish hotels.  Some  hotels  compel  you  to  breakfast  in  the 
house,  or  at  all  events  they  charge  you  for  that  meal, 
whether  you  take  it  or  not,  but  the  dinner  is  quite  optional 
with  you.  The  dining-room  is  generally  known  as  the 
"  coffee-room,"  but  in  some  hotels  there  is  a  larger  hall 
in  addition  to  the  coffee-room,  where  the  table-d'hote  din- 
ner is  served.  One  can  breakfast  very  comfortably  in  the 
coffee-room,  as  he  will  find  the  morning  papers  there,  and 
frequently  a  stock  of  guide-books  and  writing  materials, 
with  which  he  may  amuse  himself  while  his  chop  or  steak 
is  being  prepared.  Chops,  steaks,  ham  and  eggs,  and  cold 
meats  are  the  principal  items  of  an  English  breakfast, 
and  there  is  hardly  any  variation  from  day  to  day. 

If  the  dinner  is  served  in  the  continental  style,  the  trav- 
eler has  no  choice,  but  takes  the  courses  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  brought.  A  dinner  "  off  the  joint "  is 
another  thing,  and  a  peculiarly  British  institution.  Soup 
is  served,  and  then  fish,  and  then  comes  the  joint,  which 
is  the  piece  de  resistance  of  the  day.  A  huge  round  of 
beef,  smoking  hot  from  the  fire,  or  perhaps  an  equally 
huge  piece  of  mutton,  is  mounted  on  a  small  table  whose 


84  HOW  TO  TRA^'EL. 

legs  terminate  in  casters  ;  by  means  of  this  table  the  joint 
is  wheeled  before  each  customer,  who  indicates  to  tiie  car- 
ver the  exact  morsel  he  desires.  There  can  be  no  decep- 
tion, and  no  opportunity  to  serve  up  slices  that  have  been 
warmed  over  from  a  previously  cooked  joint.  The  form 
of  service  is  quite  a  novelty  to  the  newly-arrived  Ameri- 
can, and  various  opinions  have  been  passed  upon  its  ad- 
vantages. Some  are  loud  in  its  praise  while  others  de- 
clare that  the  sight  of  the  steaming  joints  destroys  their 
appetite. 

The  dinner  costs  from  two  shillings,  sixpence,  to  five 
shillings,  and  there  is  an  extra  charge  of  threepence  or  six- 
pence for  attendance,  if  the  customer  is  not  stopping  in 
the  hotel,  and  sometimes  when  he  is.  This  attendance 
business  is  a  nuisance,  and  many  a  stranger  has  spoken 
his  mind  freely  in  denouncing  it  as  a  well-regulated  swin- 
dle. The  theor)'  is  that  it  pays  for  the  service,  but  it  does 
nothing  of  the  kind,  and  every  waiter  who  has  done  the 
least  thing  for  you,  as  well  as  others  who  have  not  lifted  a 
finger  in  your  aid,  expects  to  receive  a  fee  before  your  de- 
parture. Some  of  the  hotels  have  the  impertinence  to 
print  on  their  bill-heads  "  the  service  is  all  included,  and 
nothing  more  is  expected,"  a  falsehood  as  glaring  as  any 
that  has  ever  been  told  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The 
stranger  w'ho  takes  them  at  their  word,  and  leaves  the 
house  without  distributing  sixpences  and  shillings  to  the 
servants,  would  be  looked  upon  as  little  less  than  a  down- 
right swindler,  and  be  received  with  coldness  and  negli- 
gence if  he  had  the  temerity  to  venture  there  again. 

The  prices  of  bedrooms  vary  according  to  their  location 
and  character ;  they  are  rarely  less  than  two  shillings — 
with  the  inevitable  attendance — and  often  as  high  as  five 
shillings.  The  following  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  average 
of  charges  in  an  English  hotel  of  medium  pretensions : 


1 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL.  85 

Bedroom,  -        -        3  shillings. 

Breakfast,    .        .        -     3        « 

Dinner,     -        -        -         4        " 

Supper,        -        -        -    2        "         6  pence. 

Attendance,      -        -        i        "         6      " 

If  tea  is  added  to  this  it  will  cost  not  less  than  one  shil- 
ling, and  generally  more.  The  fees  to  the  servants  are  not 
likely  to  be  less  than  a  shilling  a  day  for  each  person  of 
the  party,  and  it  requires  careful  management  to  bring 
them  down  to  that  figure.  The  fees  should  never  be  given 
till  the  moment  of  departure,  for  the  reason  already  men- 
tioned in  our  talk  about  steamships. 

At  all  hotels  in  the  United  Kingdom  and  on  the  Conti- 
nent be  sure  to  have  the  price  of  everything  distinctly 
understood  at  the  time  the  room  is  taken.  Perhaps  it  is 
from  a  consciousness  of  the  dishonesty  of  the  charge  for 
attendance,  the  manager  or  other  person  who  assigns  your 
room  never  mentions  that  item,  and  a  direct  question  is 
needed  to  bring  it  out.  The  following  inquiries  will  cover 
the  ordinary  circumstances  of  arrival  at  a  hotel : — 

"  What  is  the  price  of  a  bedroom  ? " 

"  What  is  the  charge  for  attendance  ?  " 

"  How  much  for  dinner  ?  " 

"  How  much  for  breakfast  ? " 

"  What  time  must  a  room  be  given  up  ?  " 

The  last  interrogatory  is  necessary  in  consequence  of 
the  varying  rules  of  the  hotels.  Most  of  them  have  their 
day,  like  the  nautical  one,  begin  at  noon,  and  a  person 
who  remains  till  one  or  two  P.  M.  must  pay  for  an  extra 
day  of  room  and  attendance.  Some  hotels  begin  their 
day  at  11  a.  m.,  and  some  as  early  as  10 ;  it  is  a  noticeable 
fact  that  in  several  of  these  latter  instances  important 
trains  leave  a  couple  of  hours  after  the  termination  of  the 
diurnal  reckoning.     The  traveler  who  holds  his  room  till 


86  HOW   TO  TRA^'EL. 

it  is  time  to  go  to  the  train  finds  to  his  astonishment  that 
the  last  hour  of  his  occupation  has  cost  him  the  same  as 
an  entire  day.  But  the  hotel  keepers  have  a  living  to 
make,  and  must  keep  an  eye  to  the  main  chance. 

Guides  for  the  city  or  neighborhood  can  be  had  at  all 
hotels,  and  are  preferable  to  those  picked  up  the  street. 
Carriages  and  cabs  can  also  be  ordered  at  the  hotel,  but  if 
the  traveler  can  trust  himself  to  make  a  bargain  it  is  bet- 
ter to  secure  them  outside,  since  the  house  not  infrequently 
adds  a  commission  for  its  services.  Besides  it  is  well  to 
learn  as  much  as  possible  of  the  people  you  are  among, 
and  there  are  no  more  sharply-defined  characters  in  the 
world  than  the  professional  drivers  of  Irish,  Scotch,  or 
English  cities. 


t 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  SYSTEM  OF  FEES. 

Allusion  has  been  made  in  preceding  paragraphs  to  the 
S)'stem  of  gratuities  that  prevails  in  Great  Britain  and  on 
the  Continent.  It  is  the  greatest  of  all  the  annoyances  of 
European  travel,  not  so  much  for  the  money  it  consumes 
as  for  the  perplexities  it  makes,  and  the  perpetual  irrita- 
tion of  being  asked  at  every  step  to  give  an  indefinite  sum 
for  real  or  fancied  services.  It  would  be  a  good  deal 
mitigated  if  the  expectants  would  name  the  exact  amount 
they  are  entitled  to  ;  a  regular  tariff  for  gratuities  would 
be  a  vast  relief  to  the  traveling  public,  but  this  boon  is 
emphatically  refused.  The  amount  is  always  left  to  the 
stranger,  partly  for  the  reason  that  custom  has  so  or- 
dained, and  partly  because  an  avenue  is  thus  left  open  for 
an  increased  demand. 

The  waiter  is  much  less  likely  than  his  friend  the  cab- 
man to  tell  you  he  is  under-paid,  but  he  vouchsafes  that 
information  far  more  frequently  than  is  agreeable  to  the 
traveler.  He  rarely  speaks  when  conveying  this  reproof, 
but  his  manner  is  unmistakable.  Occasionally  he  puts 
the  money  back  in  your  hand,  and  declines  to  accept  it ; 
his  manner  is  as  lofty  as  the  summit  of  Mount  Blanc,  and 
quite  as  cold,  and  to  judge  by  his  appearance  his  most 
tender  susceptibilities  have  been  sorely  wounded.  The 
novice  generally  soothes  him  by  an  addition  to  the  amount 
of  the  offer,  but  the  experienced  voyager  does  nothing  of 
the  kind.     He  drops   the  returned  cash  into  his  pocket 

(87) 


88  HOW   TO  TRAVEL. 

and  turns  away ;  the  movement  brings  the  offended  dig- 
nity to  his  senses,  and  for  a  moment  he  undergoes  a  men- 
tal struggle  over  the  situation.  Shall  he  preserve  his 
haughty  manner  and  refuse  to  pursue  the  subject,  or  shall 
he  accept  what  he  has  just  declined  ?  These  are  the  ques- 
tions that  flit  through  his  brain,  and  he  carefully  balances 
the  pros  and  cons.  The  usual  result  is  in  favor  of  the  last- 
named  course,  and  he  pockets  his  fee  in  silence  and 
thankfulness,  not  unaccompanied  with  a  sullen  air. 

Occurrences  of  this  kind  are  more  rare  in  England  than 
on  the  Continent,  and  the  Continent  again  is  freer  from 
them  than  the  countries  farther  East.  Perhaps  the  worst 
of  all  is  Egypt,  where  "  backsheesh !  "  ("  a  present ")  is 
dinned  into  the  traveler's  ears  from  morn  till  night ;  it  is 
the  word  he  first  hears  on  his  arrival,  and  the  last  at  his 
departure,  and  in  after  years  it  haunts  his  dreams,  and  is 
by  no  means  banished  from  his  waking  hours.  Whatever 
he  does  or  does  not  do,  he  is  expected  to  pay  for ;  ser- 
vices are  impudently  forced  upon  him,  and  then  the  de- 
mand for  compensation  is  as  insolent  as  it  is  exorbitant. 
The  manner  of  the  Egyptian  Arab  in  this  matter  of  back- 
sheesh is  most  insulting,  and  the  wonder  is  he  has  been 
allowed  to  practice  it  so  long.  Give  him  what  you  con- 
sider a  fair  return  for  his  services,  either  real  or  fancied, 
and  he  pushes  the  money  back  into  your  hands  and  lifts 
his  nose  into  the  air  ;  you  have  been  in  his  estimation  a 
miser,  and  your  coin  is  unfit  for  him  to  touch.  But  if  you 
drop  it  into  your  pocket  and  turn  away,  his  whole  attitude 
changes ;  he  is  no  longer  the  proud  descendant  of  the 
Mamelukes  and  the  kings  of  Egypt,  but  the  most  cring- 
ing suppliant  you  can  imagine.  He  begs  you  to  give 
again  what  he  has  just  refused,  and  if  you  persist  in  keep- 
ing it  he  has  resource  to  tears.  Not  unf requently  he  rolls 
on  the  ground  and  screams  like  an  angry  child,  and  he 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  89 

will  follow  you  for  hours  in  the  hope  that  you  will  relent. 
Sometimes,  instead  of  thrusting  the  money  into  your  hand, 
he  throws  it  on  the  ground,  knowing  that  you  will  be  very 
unlikely  to  stoop  to  pick  it  up  ;  by  so  doing  he  endeavors 
to  make  sure  of  the  original  offer,  and  takes  his  chances 
in  shaming  or  bullying  you  into  giving  more. 

The  question  naturally  occurs  to  an  American,  *  How 
shall  I  ascertain  what  is  proper  to  give  when  a  service  has 
been  rendered  to  me  ? '  No  general  rule  can  be  laid 
down,  and  the  traveler  must  depend  often  on  his  judg- 
ment. Where  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  you  can  ask  any  per- 
son who  is  familiar  with  the  subject,  and  he  will  tell  you ; 
when  this  cannot  be  done  you  have  only  yourself  to  rely 
upon.  Remember  that  in  England  and  on  the  Continent 
money  has  a  greater  purchasing  power  than  in  America, 
and  gauge  your  fees  accordingly.  Where  you  have  en- 
gaged cabmen,  guides,  or  other  individuals  whose  rate  of 
service  is  previously  arranged,  or  is  regulated  by  a  tariff, 
you  will  be  about  right  if  you  add  ten  per  cent,  for  a  gra- 
tuity. Thus  a  guide  whose  tariff  is  five  francs  a  day 
should  be  satisfied  with  half  a  franc,  but,  if  he  has  been 
specially  zealous  and  useful,  you  can  give  him  a  franc 
with  safety.  The  Paris  cabman  expects  four  sous  addi- 
tional on  the  course  or  six  sous  an  hour ;  his  fee  is  obliga- 
tory in  a  certain  sense,  as  his  wages  are  too  low  for  him 
to  live  upon  without  the  pour  boire.  The  German  cabman 
expects  his  trinkgeld  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  you  will 
really  under-pay  him  if  you  do  not  give  it.  The  same  is 
the  case  with  his  class  in  all  parts  of  the  Continent,  as 
well  as  in  Great  Britain,  and  you  will  fully  hit  the  mark  if 
you  augment  the  regular  tariff  by  fifteen  or  twenty  per 
cent. 

In  the  restaurants  the  waiters  generally  receive  nothing 
m  the  form  of  wages ;  they  rely  entirely  on  the  donations 


90  HOW  TO  TKAVEL. 

of  patrons  for  their  compensation,  and  the  system  is  well 
understood  by  the  public.  The  money  thus  obtained  is 
dropped  into  a  box  at  the  cashier's  counter,  and  divided 
among  all  the  waiters  of  the  establishment  at  the  end  of 
the  week.  This  has  been  found  after  long  experience  the 
best  way  to  secure  uniform  attention  to  all  customers, — 
better  than  to  allow  each  waiter  to  pocket  the  money  he 
receives.  In  the  latter  case,  a  patron  know  to  be  liberal 
would  be  carefully  looked  after,  while  the  man  who  gave 
only  the  regulation  fee  would  be  neglected.  Under  the 
present  arrangement  a  waiter  can  have  no  great  induce- 
ment to  neglect  the  niggardly  min  to  an  undue  extent,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  will  not  be  over-serviceable  to  the 
generous  one.  The  box  for  the  money  is  in  full  view  of 
all  the  waiters,  so  as  to  prevent  any  frauds  on  the  reve- 
nue ;  it  is  usually  of  metal,  and  a  foot  or  so  in  height.  The 
shape  and  material  cause  the  coin  to  jingle  when  it  falls, 
and  thus  the  waiters  can  be  taught  by  the  ear  as  well  as 
by  the  eye  that  the  donations  are  properly  bestowed. 

A  French  barber  shop  frequently  amuses  the  stranger 
on  account  of  the  way  the  potir  boire  is  received.  You 
have  whatever  tonsorial  operation  you  choose,  and  when 
the  work  is  finished  you  pay  according  to  the  tariff.  When 
change  has  been  made  you  leave  a  few  sous  on  the  counter 
for  the  inevitable  extra;  the  cashier  drops  them  in  the 
metal  box  which  stands  ready  for  their  reception,  and  the 
sound  of  their  fall  is  followed  by  a  chorus  of  "  Merci, 
monsieur,"  from  all  the  barbers  in  the  place,  be  they  few 
or  many.  Half  a  dozen  masculine  voices  pronouncing 
those  words  in  measured  cadence  have  a  strange  effect  on 
the  ears  of  a  novice. 

In  many  hotels  and  restaurants  in  England,  and  on  the 
Continent,  not  only  do  the  servants  receive  no  wages,  but 
they  even  pay  something  to  the  proprietor  for  their  places. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  91 

In  the  restaurants  of  Vienna  there  is  a  man  who  is  desig- 
nated the  "  zoll-kellner"  (pay-waiter)  who  carries  a  leather 
sack  at  his  side  to  hold  the  coin  for  making  change.  Your 
accounts  are  settled  with  him,  and  not  with  the  waiter  who 
has  served  you,  and  it  is  to  the  zoll-kellner  that  you  give 
your  gratuities.  Out  of  the  gratuities  he  pays  the  wages 
of  the  waiters,  and  reimburses  himself  for  his  services,  so 
that  the  attendance  costs  the  establishment  nothing. 
Some  of  the  larger  bier-halles  in  Vienna  derive  a  revenue 
from  the  service,  as  they  require  the  zoll-kellner  to  pay 
some  hundreds  of  dollars  annually  for  his  privilege,  be- 
sides giving  his  time  and  paying  the  waiters. 

The  usual  fee  in  a  restaurant  on  the  Continent  is  a  sou 
on  each  franc  of  the  bill,  or  one  sou  in  twenty.  Thus,  if 
you  have  ten  francs  to  pay  for  your  dinner,  you  give 
half  a  franc,  or  ten  sous,  to  the  waiter,  and  if  you  have 
expended  only  five  francs  you  give  him  five  sous.  A  sou 
on  a  franc  is  a  good  general  rule  ;  it  is  followed  by  the 
great  majority  of  Frenchmen  and  other  continental  peo- 
ple, but  you  should  not  adhere  to  it  by  giving  a  single  sou 
when  you  have  only  a  franc  to  pay.  Never  give  less  than 
two  sous,  where  you  give  anything  at  all,  except  to  the 
professional  beggar  of  whom  you  wish  to  rid  yourself. 
The  cashiers  of  the  restaurants  always  arrange  the  change, 
so  that  you  will  have  the  material  for  the  pour  boire. 
Suppose  your  bill  is  exactly  ten  francs,  and  you  put  down 
a  twenty-franc  piece  from  which  the  amount  is  to  be  taken. 
The  cashier  sends  back,  not  a  ten-franc  piece,  but  a  five- 
franc  piece,  four  francs,  half  a  franc,  and  the  rest  in  cop- 
per. Sometimes  there  is  an  attempt  to  cause  the  stranger 
to  bleed  freely  by  making  change  so  that  he  will  be  com- 
pelled to  give  more  than  is  necessary.  Thus  in  the  in- 
stance described  above,  the  cashier  would  send  back  a 
five-franc  piece  and  five  pieces  of  one  franc  each,  so  as  to 


92  HOW  TO  tra%t:l. 

compel  a  donation  of  a  franc.  Whenever  this  is  done  you 
can  be  entirely  sure  that  it  is  an  effort  to  extract  more 
than  is  due  ;  you  can  meet  it  by  asking  change — la  mon- 
jtaie — for  one  of  the  franc  pieces,  or  better  still,  give  the 
exact  poicr  boire  from  the  reserve  you  should  always  have 
in  your  pocket. 

The  regulation  of  the  fees  necessary'  for  a  hotel  is  more 
difficult  than  for  a  restaurant.  The  amount  given  should 
be  proportioned  to  the  time  you  have  been  in  the  house, 
the  services  of  the  waiters,  the  demands  you  have  made 
upon  them,  and  the  size  of  your  party.  It  is  best  to  let 
one  person  of  a  part}'  pay  all  the  gratuities,  and  do  it  in  a 
systematic  way  so  that  each  servant  receives  his  or  her 
due.  Suppose  you  are  four  in  number,  and  have  been  a 
week  in  the  house ;  you  pay  the  concierge  from  five  to 
eight  francs,  the  chambermaid  four  to  six,  the  waiter  who 
has  brought  the  coffee  in  the  morning,  and  otherwise 
looked  after  you,  five  to  eight,  and  the  porter  who  has 
handled  luggage  and  blacked  your  boots,  five  to  six  francs. 
These  figures  are  for  a  fair  amount  of  service,  and  are  lib- 
eral enough  for  rnost  cases.  Every  traveler  must  judge 
for  himself  whether  he  has  made  an  undue  demand  upon 
the  servants,  and  gauge  his  gratuities  accordingly. 

So  much  has  been  said  about  the  fee  system  that  some 
of  the  hotels  have  adopted  the  plan  of  certain  English 
ones  in  announcing  that  the  service  is  all  included  and 
nothing  more  is  expected.  But  the  pretence  is  a  very 
thin  one,  as  the  departing  traveler  will  surely  ascertain. 
The  servants  come  to  his  room  while  he  is  putting  the  fin- 
ishing touch  to  his  packing,  they  lie  in  wait  in  the  halls 
and  on  the  stairways,  and  they  assemble  at  the  door  to 
see  him  off.  There  is  often  a  preconcerted  system  of  sig- 
nals by  which  all  the  servants  can  be  notified  of  the  ap- 
proaching departure  of  a  patron  of  a  hotel.     Bells  will  be 


now  TO  TRAVEL,  93 

rung,  or  somebody  will  be  called  in  a  loud  voice  to  bring 
something  either  real  or  imaginary.  The  writer  had  the 
following  experience  in  a  hotel  in  Paris  : 

He  had  been  in  the  house  nearly  a  week,  and  followed 
the  usual  custom  of  leaving  his  key  with  the  concierge 
whenever  he  went  out.  If  he  came  in  in  the  afternoon  he 
was  usually  informed  that  the  chambermaid  had  the  key 
upstairs,  and  on  proceeding  to  his  hall  he  summoned  that 
damsel  by  touching  a  bell  at  the  head  of  the  stairway ;  the 
concierge  never  made  any  pretence  of  calling  her,  but  sim- 
ply indicated  that  the  key  was  above.  One  afternoon  he 
came  in,  asked  for  his  key,  and  received  the  usual  re- 
sponse that  the  chambermaid  had  it.  As  he  turned  to  go 
upstairs  he  asked  to  have  his  bill  made  out,  as  he  was 
going  away  immediately. 

The  half-asleep  concierge  seemed  to  have  been  struck 
with  a  shock  from  an  electric  battery.  She  protruded  her 
head  from  the  window  of  her  office,  and  shouted  so  that 
she  could  have  been  heard  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
house : — 

"  Fifine !  Fifine  !  apportez  le  clef  pour  mimero  trente 
deux ;  monsieur  va  partir — ilvapartir"  ("Bring  the  key 
for  number  32 ;  the  gentlemen  is  going  away ;  he's  going 
away ! ") 

The  echoes  of  the  last  syllable  of  the  last  word  of  her 
call  followed  number  32  up  the  stairs  to  his  door.  When 
he  had  arranged  his  packing  and  descended,  he  found  the 
servants  waiting  for  him,  with  the  exception  of  those  he 
had  already  encountered  on  his  way  down.  At  least  half 
of  them  he  had  never  seen,  but  all  had  their  hands  open 
for  any  tokens  of  remembrance  in  the  shape  of  the  cur- 
rent coin  of  the  country. 

The  custom  of  assembling  all  the  servants  on  the  de- 
parture of  a  traveler  is  descended  from  the  Middle  Ages 


94  HOW  TO  TKAVEL. 

when  the  retainers  of  a  castle  were  summoned  by  the  bell 
at  the  portcullis  to  welcome  the  coming  and  speed  the 
parting  guest.  Like  many  another  honorable  usage  of 
olden  times  it  has  suffered  degradation ;  at  present  it  is 
simply  a  form  of  extracting  money  from  the  traveler,  and 
not  one  servant  in  a  hundred  is  aware  of  its  origin,  or 
fhinks  of  it  in  any  other  light  than  the  practical  one.  The 
fee  system  to  the  hotel  waiter  had  a  similar  origin,  and  is 
likewise  a  relic  of  feudalism.  The  guest  at  the  castle  of 
a  baron  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  not  expected  to  pay  for 
his  accommodation ;  he  was  in  every  sense  a  guest,  and 
like  many  a  guest  of  modern  days,  he  often  felt  that  he 
was  causing  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and  extra  work  on  the 
part  of  the  servants  and  retainers.  Consequently  he 
opened  his  purse  at  his  departure  and  scattered  his  cash 
among  those  who  had  cared  for  him ;  the  shell  of  the  cus- 
tom has  been  retained,  but  its  sentiment  is  altogether  gone. 
The  patron  of  a  hotel  pays  his  bill,  and  is  in  no  sense  a 
"  guest,"  as  many  keepers  of  hostelries  like  to  call  him, 
and  the  excuse  for  his  distribution  of  money  among  the 
servants  has  the  lightest  possible  foundation. 

In  high  circles  the  habits  of  the  olden  time  remain  in 
all  their  purity,  and  princes  and  kings  and  nobles  are 
obliged  to  pay  heavily  for  their  entertainment.  After  his  so- 
journ in  Paris  in  1867,  the  Emperor  of  Russia  gave  40,000 
francs  to  be  distributed  among  the  ser^-ants  of  the  palace 
where  he  was  lodged,  and  the  King  of  Italy  gave  10,000 
francs  under  similar  circumstances  at  Vienna  in  1873. 
American  and  other  foreigners  of  distinction  who  visit 
Egypt  are  often  honored  with  lodgings  in  one  of  the  Khe- 
dive's palaces,  or  with  one  of  his  private  steamers  to  go 
up  the  Nile.  But  it  is  bad  economy  to  accept  these  cour- 
tesies, for  the  reason  that  the  backsheesh  to  servants  and 
officers  amounts  to  a  large  figure,  frequently  to  several 


I 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  95 

hundreds  of  dollars.  It  was  said  of  Ismail  Pacha  that  he 
paid  nothing  to  the  attaches  of  his  boats  and  palaces  but 
reimbursed  them  by  giving  them  an  occasional  distin- 
guished visitor  to  pluck. 

The  fee  system  has  grown  into  so  many  abuses  in  these 
latter  days  that  several  governments  have  passed  laws  re- 
stricting it,  and  forbidding  its  servants  to  accept  fees. 
This  is  noticeable  in  the  public  galleries  of  France,  Italy, 
and  other  countries,  where  no  fees  are  demanded  except  a 
slight  charge  for  taking  care  of  a  cane  or  umbrella,  and 
sometimes  an  entrance  fee,  which  is  bought  at  a  ticket- 
office,  and  must  be  paid  by  everybody  who  enters.  At  the 
ruins  of  Pompeii  signs  are  posted  in  all  the  languages  of 
Europe  forbidding  the  guides  to  accept  fees  in  any  form 
under  penalty  of  dismissal ;  the  regulations  are  so  strin- 
gent that  no  guide  dares  to  accept  a  piece  of  money,  no 
matter  how  willing  you  may  be  to  give  it.  But  there  is  a 
form  of  keeping  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear  and  break- 
ing it  to  the  hope ;  the  guides  are  allowed  to  sell  photo- 
graphs of  the  various  objects  of  interest,  and  sometimes 
they  pester  you  with  them  to  an  extent  far  worse  than  any 
direct  application  for  gratuities. 

The  traveler  should  be  cautious  about  making  a  "  half- 
bargain  "  with  guides,  valets,  et  id  omne genus,  who  will  be 
sure  to  make  all  kinds  of  claim  against  him.  Never  ac- 
cept the  services  of  one  of  these  men  without  a  positive 
agreement  as  to  the  amount  he  is  to  receive,  and  if  you  can 
have  it  include  his  pour  boire,  so  much  the  better.  He  al- 
ways desires  to  leave  something  open  for  a  demand,  while 
you  should  be  equally  certain  to  have  no  loop-hole  in  the 
contract.  A  Neapolitan  guide  will  fix  his  services  at  five 
francs  a  day,  "  and  something  for  myself  if  you  are  satis- 
fied." Now  this  something  breeds  a  great  deal  of  trouble. 
The  writer  had  one  of  these  fellows  to  accompany  him  up 


96  now   TO   TRAA-EL. 

Vesuvius  on  his  first  visit  to  Naples.  The  *  something ' 
was  left  undetermined ;  the  guide  received  five  francs  at 
the  end  of  the  day  with  a  franc  extra,  which  was  thought 
to  be  quite  sufficient.  He  struck  an  attitude  of  astonish- 
ment and  declared  himself  outrageously  treated ;  "  gen- 
tlemen always  gives  me  five  francs  extra,"  he  remarked, 
"  and  some  of  them  gives  ten."  This  was  said  with  an 
air  of  withering  conternpt,  but  there  was  nothing  in  his 
neighborhood  that  withered  immediately.  When  a  guide 
proposes  to  hire  himself  for  five  francs  and  something  if 
you  are  satisfied,  endeavor  to  fix  the  amount  of  the  "  sat- 
isfaction." If  he  will  not  do  it  he  is  a  good  subject  to 
drop,  unless  he  is  the  only  one  of  his  kind  attainable,  and 
you  happen  to  be  in  a  hurry.  Remember  always  that  a 
half-bargain  is  a  bad  bargain,  every^vhere,  and  especially 
in  the  countries  where  the  fee  system  is  in  vogue. 

Sometimes  even  a  careful  bargain  will  not  protect  the 
traveler  from  trouble.  Italian  boatmen  will  agree  for  a 
certain  sum,  and  while  on  the  way  they  demand  more.  If 
you  are  going  on  board  a  steamer  at  Naples  they  are  apt 
to  be  extortionate,  as  they  know  you  are  leaving  port  and 
are  not  likely  to  give  them  trouble  with  the  police.  A 
boatman  agrees  to  carry  you  and  your  baggage  for  two 
francs  ;  you  enter  his  boat  and  off  you  go.  Half  way  to 
the  ship  he  stops  rowing  and  demands  four,  or  perhaps 
five,  francs,  and  threatens  to  return  to  shore  unless  you 
comply.  If  you  are  strong,  and  carry  a  cane  or  good  um- 
brella, a  threat  to  break  his  head,  accompanied  with  a 
gesture  to  that  effect,  will  generally  cause  him  to  proceed. 
If  you  are  weak  and  timid,  the  best  way  is  to  say  nothing, 
and  if  you  are  tough  in  conscience  and  don't  mind  meet- 
ing downright  rascality  with  a  white  lie,  you  can  nod  as- 
sent and  let  him  go  on.  Before  he  gets  to  the  ship  he  will 
increase  his  demand,  and  you  may  nod  again.     When  you 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  97 

reach  the  vessel  do  not  show  your  money  till  your  bag- 
gage is  safe  on  board,  the  heavy  trunks  in  the  hold,  and 
the  lighter  things  in  your  cabin.  Then  pay  the  sum  you 
first  agreed  to  give,  and  not  a  centime  more,  and,  having 
discharged  the  obligation,  descend  to  the  saloon.  The 
boatman  is  not  allowed  to  follow  you  there,  but  he  will 
give  vent  to  a  volley  of  imprecations  that  fall  harmless  on 
your  devoted  head  if  you  happen  to  be  ignorant  of  Italian. 
When  these  fellows  get  too  noisy  they  are  ordered  away 
from  the  ship,  and  after  their  departure  you  may  mount 
again  to  the  deck  and  enjoy  the  wonderfully  beautiful  pan- 
orama of  the  bay  of  Naples. 

The  boatmen  of  Alexandria,  Egypt,  are  worse  than 
their  Neapolitan  brethren,  as  they  sometimes  resort  to 
downright  violence.  A  strong  cane  is  the  best  argument 
for  them,  and  if  you  are  two  or  three  men  against  an  equal 
or  inferior  number,  you  have  a  moral  force  that  stands  in 
good  stead.  One  man  alone  may  face  two  or  three  of  these 
rascals,  but  he  is  not  altogether  safe,  as  they  would  have 
little  hesitation  in  robbing  him  and  then  throwing  him 
overboard,  if  they  could  be  sure  of  escaping  undetected. 
They  have  been  known  to  pull  around  the  harbor  for  an 
hour  or  two  to  compel  their  victim  to  come  to  terms,  and 
if  brought  before  the  police  for  their  misconduct  they  gen- 
erally manage  to  bribe  themselves  out  of  trouble,  unless 
their  prosecutor  is  able  and  willing  to  pay  more  for  their 
punishment  than  they  can  for  their  liberty. 

The  inhabitants  of  Switzerland  have  been  noted  in  all 
ages  for  their  thrifty  habits  and  their  ability  to  make  much 
of  an  opportunity.  In  former  times  their  genius  was  dis- 
played in  watch-making  and  other  industries  ;  in  these  lat- 
ter days,  they  have  devoted  themselves  in  great  measure 
to  fleecing  the  tourists  that  come  among  them,  and  some 

of  their  performances  in  this  line  border  on  the  wonder- 

7 


98  HOW  TO   TRAVEL. 

ful.  Watch-making  and  wood-carving  still  exist,  and  quite 
probably  there  are  yet  many  honest  people  in  the  lancf  of 
the  Alps.  Down  to  a  recent  period  the  exploitation  of  the 
stranger  was  left  to  the  hotel-keepers,  guides,  porters,  and 
others  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  if  he  felt 
aggrieved  and  brought  complaint  against  his  swindlers  he 
could  receive  redress  at  the  hands  of  the  law.  On  a  change 
tout  cela,  the  government  has  come  to  the  assistance  of 
the  exploiting  class,  and  what  was  before  optional  is  now 
official.  At  every  step  the  tourist  encounters  a  "  tariff," 
and  if  he  objects  to  anything  his  attention  is  called  to  the 
fact  that  is  "  official."  The  hotel  porter  takes  your  trunk 
to  the  door  of  the  establishment  where  you  have  been 
lodged,  and  hands  it  over  to  a  licensed  porter,  who  car- 
ries it  to  the  boat,  train,  or  diligence.  He  stops  at  the 
dock,  or  at  the  front  of  the  station,  where  another  licensed 
porter  comes  forw^ard  and  bears  the  trunk  to  the  baggage- 
man ;  each  of  the  porters  must  be  paid,  and  the  baggage-  • 
man  also  expects  something,  and  if  you  object  you  are 
shown  the  official  tariff,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

The  official  tariff  is  made  the  scapegoat  of  a  great 
many  extortions  and  downright  falsehoods;  the  writer 
will  give  a  bit  of  his  personal  experience  to  illustrate  this 
statement.  He  was  in  Martigny,  on  his  way  to  Cha- 
mouny,  in  the  summer  of  iSSo,  and  wished  to  hire  a  car- 
riage for  the  journey  ;  he  had  been  told  that  one  could  be 
had  for  thirty  or  forty  francs,  and  asked  the  proprietor  of 
the  hotel  Clerc  where  carriages  were  to  be  had  and  the 
price  to  be  paid.  The  latter  answered  that  the  tariff  for 
a  carriage  for  two  persons  was  fifty  francs,  and  there  was 
no  other  price. 

"  But,"  said  the  stranger,  "  I  have  been  told  that  a  car- 
riage can  be  had  for  thirty  or  forty  francs.    Is  it  not  so  ? " 

"  Not  at  all,"  was  the  proprietor's    answer  ;    "  there   is 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  99 

only  one  price,  fifty  francs.  They  will  tell  you  so  at  the 
office  of  the  Association  of  Drivers.'"'  {Societc  des  cockers  de 
Alartigny.) 

He  indicated  the  office,  which  was  close  to  the  hotel, 
and  the  stranger  went  there.  The  agent  assured  him  that 
no  carriage  could  be  had  under  fifty  francs,  and  he  pointed 
to  the  official  tariff,  by  which  all  drivers  were  bound. 
Convinced  of  the  truthfulness  of  the  landlord's  statement, 
the  stranger  engaged  a  carriage  and  paid  twenty-five  francs 
in  advance,  the  balance  being  due  on  arrival  at  Cha- 
mouny.  Then  he  strolled  up  the  street  and  came  upon 
an  office  bearing  the  announcement : — 

"  Carriages  for  Chamouny. — Two  persons,  thirty  francs ; 
three  persons,  forty  francs  ;  four  persons,  fifty  francs." 

Full  of  wrath  at  having  been  swindled,  he  returned  to 
the  hotel  and  interviewed  the  landlord.  There  was  a  good 
deal  of  frankness  to  the  square  foot  of  the  conversation, 
and  the  landlord  became  very  indignant  when  told  that  he 
had  dealt  sparingly  with  the  truth.  He  defended  his  ac- 
tion on  the  ground  that  the  official  tariff  was  fifty  francs, 
and  he  did  not  recognize  the  existence  of  the  opposition. 
In  whatever  light  the  case  was  presented,  he  responded 
that  the  opposition  was  not  "  recognized,"  and  he  would 
not  allow  his  patrons  to  travel  by  it  if  possible  to  prevent 
their  doing  so.  He  denied  receiving  any  commission 
from  the  "  official  "  drivers,  and  waxed  wroth  at  the  inti- 
mation of  such  a  thing,  but  the  writer  ascertained  after- 
wards to  his  full  satisfaction  that  the  drivers  gave  ten  per 
cent,  of  their  revenues  to  the  hotel-keepers  on  condition 
that  the  latter  would  ignore  the  existence  of  the  opposi- 
tion, and  give  all  patronage  to  the  association. 

Cases  like  the  foregoing  may  be  found  all  over  Switzer- 
land in  one  form  or  another.  Great  stress  is  laid  upon 
the  words  "  official  "  and  "  tariff,"  and  matters  are  so  ar- 


100  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

ranged  that  the  traveler  can  be  bled  as  much  as  possible 
with  the  least  possible  chance  of  redress.  The  authorities 
connive  at  the  frauds,  and  the  chances  are  twenty  to  one 
that  a  tourist  who  has  the  temerity  to  bring  his  disputes  be- 
fore them  will  be  required  to  pay  the  sum  in  question, 
with  a  hea\7  addition  in  the  shape  of  a  fine.  As  an  in- 
stance of  official  connivance,  the  following  may  be  cited : — 

Tourists  going  from  Zermatt  to  the  railway  station  at 
Visp  have  a  journey  of  about  eight  hours,  partly  by  sad- 
dle and  partly  by  wagon;  it  is  customary  to  forward 
trunks  and  valises  by  the  government  post,  which  is  due 
at  Visp  at  4  P.  M.,  while  the  train  for  Lausanne  and  Ge- 
neva leaves  at  five  o'clock.  The  traveler  times  his  move- 
ments so  as  to  get  to  Visp  to  claim  his  baggage  and  take 
it  to  the  railway  station  in  season  for  the  train,  but  he 
finds  on  arrival  that  the  postmaster  is  busy  with  the  veri- 
fication of  the  lists,  copying  them,  sorting  letters,  and  ar- 
ranging parcels  in  general,  so  that  there  is  no  delivery  till 
after  the  departure  of  the  train.  This  neat  arrangement 
compels  the  traveler  who  wishes  to  keep  with  his  luggage 
to  spend  a  night  at  Visp,  to  the  profit  of  one  of  the  two 
hotels  that  adorn  this  uninteresting  place,  and,  further- 
more, they  have  a  habit  of  closing  the  office  half  an  hour 
before  the  departure  of  the  forenoon  train,  and  the  hotel- 
keepers  manage  to  keep  you  at  breakfast  until  this  half- 
hour  has  been  reached.  In  this  case  you  must  wait  till 
afternoon,  or  go  on  without  your  property,  either  of  which 
is  unpleasant,  and  if  you  venture  to  complain  you  are 
told  that  such  is  the  regulation  of  the  office,  and  as  the 
postmaster  represents  the  government  the  futility  of  any 
opposition  is  at  once  apparent. 

The  Swiss  excel  even  the  Chinese  in  their  genius  for 
combinations  and  gviilds ;  and  the  object  of  these  enter- 
prises is  not,  like  those  of  the  Chinese,  altogether  in  the 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL. 


101 


interest  of  legitimate  labor,  but  to  the  end  that  the  pocket 
of  the  stranger  can  be  depleted  to  the  advantage  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  land  of  William  Tell.  Items  that  were 
formerly  regarded  as  gratuities,  and  therefore  optional, 
are  now  obligatory,  and  they  are  frequently  demanded 
with  an  insolence  that  rouses  the  traveler's  ire.  There 
are  doubtless  many  honest  people  in  Switzerland,  but  it  is 
not  easy  for  the  ordinary  traveler  to  find  them,  and  the 
difficulty  seems  to  be  increasing  every  year. 


CHAPTER  X. 

EXGLISH  AND  COXTIXEXTAL  MONEY. 

\Ye  have  already  considered  the  subject  of  letters  of 
credit  and  the  uses  to  be  made  of  them.  We  will  now 
look  at  the  perplexities  of  the  English  and  Continental 
currencies.  The  English  stand  at  the  head  of  the  list  in 
having  one  of  the  most  troublesome  monetar}-  systems  im- 
aginable ;  it  is  a  never-failing  source  of  inconvenience  to 
the  stranger,  especially  if  he  has  come  from  a  land  where 
the  decimal  system  in  one  form  or  another  is  in  vogue. 
We  all  know  it  from  the  school-books : — 
4  farthings  make  one  penny, 
12  pence  make  one  shilling, 

20  shillings  make  one  pound, 

21  shillings  make  one  guinea. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  commit  the  above  to  memor}',  but 
not  at  all  easy  to  put  it  into  practice.  The  farthing  is  im- 
aginary, like  the  American  mill,  the  smallest  coin  being 
two  farthings,  or  half  a  penny,  usually  called  a  ha'penny, 
with  the  accent  on  the  first  syllable.  This  coin  is  about 
equal  to  the  American  cent,  so  that  a  penny  is  worth  two 
cents,  or  very  nearly.  The  shilling  is  nearly  the  equiva- 
lent of  twent}'-five  cents.  Four  shillings  may  be  reckoned 
as  a  dollar,  and  a  pound  as  five  dollars.  The  actual  value 
is  less  than  five  dollars,  but  it  is  near  enough  for  rough 
calculations.  The  guinea  is  obsolete,  and  does  not  exist 
in  circulation,  but  the  coins  can  be  bought  as  curiosities, 

(102) 


now   TO   TKAVEL.  103 

and  may  be  seen  occasionally  dangling  from  the  watch- 
chains  of  their  possessors.  English  tradesmen  are  fond 
of  stating  prices  in  guineas  when  dealing  with  foreigners, 
as  they  can  thereby  add  five  per  cent,  to  their  revenues  ; 
the  English  customer  is  on  the  look-out  for  this  trick  and 
cannot  be  caught  by  it,  but  the  American  is  very  likely  to 
confound  pounds  with  guineas  and  not  think  of  the  differ- 
ence. Some  unscrupulous  tailors  and  other  tradesmen  are 
in  the  habit  of  making  their  bills  in  guineas  when  only 
pounds  have  been  mentioned,  and  not  infrequently  the 
bills  are  paid  without  the  discovery  of  the  swindle. 

The  smallest  bank-notes  in  circulation  in  England  are 
of  five  pounds  each,  though  the  banks  in  Ireland  and  Scot- 
land, and  some  of  the  private  banks  in  England,  issue 
notes  of  one  pound.  The  gold  coins  are  twenty  shillings 
and  ten  shillings  each,  and  known  as  sovereigns  and  half- 
sovereigns.  In  common  usage  the  larger  is  frequently 
called  a  "  sov.,"  and  a  ten-shilling  piece  a  "  half-sov."  Sil- 
ver coins  are  for  five  shillings,  two  and  a  half  shillings, 
two  shillings,  one  shilling,  sixpence,  fourpence,  and  three- 
pence. The  copper  coins  of  a  penny  and  a  halfpenny  com- 
plete the  list.  The  two-and-a-half-shilling  piece  is  called 
half  a  crown,  the  five-shilling  piece  sometimes  a  crown  and 
sometimes,  in  slang  language,  "  five  bob."  A  shilling  is 
designated  as  a  "  bob  "  by  the  lower  classes,  and  a  six- 
pence as  a  "  tanner."  "  Two  bobs  and  a  tanner,"  means 
"  two  shillings  and  sixpence." 

The  two-shilling  piece  is  the  newest  of  the  English  coins, 
and  is  heartily  detested  by  the  cabman,  the  waiter,  and  all 
others  whose  existence  has  any  dependence  on  gratuities. 
Where  half  a  crown  was  formerly  given,  the  two-shilling 
piece  comes  in  use ;  the  giver  saves  a  sixpence,  and  the 
receiver  is  "  out  "  just  that  amount.  If  a  vote  of  the  fee- 
taking  classes  could  be  had  on  the  subject  it  would  be 


104 


nOVv'   TO   TRAVEL. 


unanimous  for  the  abolition  of  this  hated  coin.  Travelers 
economically  inclined  would  do  well  to  consider  the  ad- 
vantages of  this  piece  of  money,  and  govern  themselves 
accordingly. 

On  the  Continent  the  currency  in  nearly  all  countries  is 
far  simpler  than  in  England,  for  the  reason  that  it  is  on  a 
decimal  basis.  The  franc  is  the  acknowledged  unit  of 
France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  and  Italy,  and  it  is  divided 
into  a  hundred  parts,  known  as  cciitimes  in  the  three  coun, 
tries  first  named,  and  as  centissijni  in  the  last  of  the  list. 
Reckonings  are  in  francs  and  centimes ;  the  approximate 
value  of  the  franc  is  twenty  cents  of  American  money- 
though  in  reality  it  is  a  trifle  over  eighteen  cents.  The 
centime  is  consequently  one-fifth  of  a  cent,  but  no  coins  of 
that  value  are  stamped  except  in  Italy ;  five  centimes 
make  a  sou  in  all  the  countries  except  Italy,  where  the 
coin  is  known  as  a  soldi,  and  it  is  the  smallest  of  the  coins 
in  general  use.  The  sou  is  practically  the  equivalent  of 
the  American  cent,  and  is  about  as  large  as  the  old-fash- 
ioned "  copper  "  of  twenty  years  ago.  There  is  a  two-sous 
piece  of  copper  in  all  the  countries  named,  and  quite  re- 
cently some  of  them  have  adopted  nickel  coins  of  the  value 
of  five,  ten,  and  twenty  centimes.  There  are  silver  coins 
of  twenty  and  fifty  centimes  (the  last  being  a  half-franc), 
and  then  come  the  pieces  of  one  franc,  two  francs,  and  five 
francs,  the  last  being  about  the  size  of  the  American  dol- 
lar. The  gold  coins  are  of  ten  and  twenty  francs,  and 
occasionally  we  encounter  pieces  of  forty  francs,  and  also 
some  slender  ones  of  five  francs.  Bank-notes  are  of  lo, 
20,  50,  100,  500,  and  1000  francs,  and  rarely  smaller  except 
in  Italy,  where  there  is  a  depreciated  paper  currency  with 
forced  circulation.  Gold  and  silver  are  as  scarce  in  Italy 
as  they  were  in  the  United  States  in  the  decade  following 
our  civil  war ;  the  rate  of  discount  for  paper  varies  accord- 


now   TO  TRAVEL.  105 

ing  to  the  condition  of  the  national  treasury,  and  for  other 
countries,  and  can  always  be  ascertained  at  any  banker's, 
or  in  the  hotels.  Where  it  is  not  expressly  stipulated  to 
the  contrary,  all  hotel  and  other  bills  in  Italy  are  payable 
in  paper  at  par  whatever  may  be  the  rate  of  discount ;  if 
a  hotel-keeper  attempts  to  compel  the  payment  of  his  bill 
in  gold,  without  previous  notification,  he  can  be  brought 
to  terms  by  referring  him  to  the  police.  The  franc  is  com- 
monly called  a  lira  in  Italy,  especially  among  the  lower 
classes,  who  have  a  tendency  to  stick  to  their  national 
terms. 

The  unit  of  Austria  is  the  florin  (about  fifty  American 
cents),  which  is  divided  into  a  hundred  kreutzers.  The 
currency  is  in  paper,  at  a  varying  discount,  with  coins  of 
one,  five,  ten,  and  twenty  kreutzers,  based  on  the  paper 
values.  There  is  a  ten-florin  piece  of  gold  which  is  in- 
tended to  be  equal  to  the  twenty-franc  piece,  but  is  just  a 
trifle  short  of  it,  and  is  consequently  refused  by  bankers 
and  others,  except  at  a  discount.  The  unit  of  Russia  is 
the  rouble  (about  seventy-five  cents  American),  and  it  is 
divided  into  one  hundred  kopecks ;  the  circulation  is  in 
paper,  and  it  fluctuates  in  value  with  the  varying  condi- 
tions of  the  public  treasury,  and  the  alternating  events  of 
war  or  peace. 

The  German  States  had  until  within  a  few  a  years  a  be- 
wildering array  of  currencies  that  would  require  whole 
pages  of  this  book  for  their  enumeration.  Since  the  uni- 
fication of  the  Empire  the  old  currencies  have  mostly  dis- 
appeared, and  a  uniform  system  has  been  adopted.  The 
unit  is  the  mark  (twenty-five  cents  American,  or  one  shil- 
ling English),  and  the  mark  is  divided  into  one  hundred 
pfennings.  The  silver  coins  are  five  marks,  two  marks, 
and  one  mark,  and  fifty  and  twenty  pfennings,  the  nickle 
of  ten  and  five  pfennings,  the  copper  of  two  pfennings  and 


lOG  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

one  pfenning ;  the  gold  coins  are  twenty,  ten,  nnd  live 
marks,  and  the  largest  of  the  three  is  intended  to  be  equal 
to  the  English  sovereign. 

English  sovereigns  can  be  exchanged  in  any  country  of 
Europe  for  the  local  currency,  and  so  can  the  French, 
Italian,  or  other  pieces  of  twenty  francs.  The  latter  are 
generally  called  napoleons,  but  since  the  establishment  of 
the  French  Republic  there  has  been  a  revival  of  the  old 
name  lotus,  or  louis  d''or.  Some  intense  Republicans  de- 
nominate the  coin  in  question  "  it7te piece  devingt francs^'' 
and  do  not  seem  to  mind  the  loss  of  time  requisite  for  pro- 
nouncing four  words  instead  of  one.  The  traveler  who 
has  a  stock  of  sovereigns  or  napoleons,  either  or  both,  can 
always  settle  his  bill  at  the  hotels  with  those  coins,  but  he 
must  be  careful  to  have  a  supply  of  the  money  of  the 
country  for  paying  railway  fares.  In  most  countries  of 
Europe  the  railways  are  more  or  less  under  government 
control,  and  the  ticket-sellers  are  forbidden  to  accept  for- 
eign money.  Sometimes  a  ticket-seller  will  change  the 
traveler's  money  for  him,  but  he  naturally  expects  to  be 
paid  for  his  trouble. 

At  the  frontier  railway  stations  there  are  money- 
changers who  do  a  very  good  business  on  small  capital. 
Travelers  can  exchange  the  money  of  the  country  they 
are  leaving  for  that  of  the  one  they  are  entering,  and  the 
changer  can  turn  his  capital  as  many  times  as  there  are 
trains  each  way  daily,  and  make  a  .small  percentage  on 
each  operation.  He  has  a  fine  profit  and  no  risk,  except 
that  he  may  take  an  occasional  counterfeit,  but  in  the  lat- 
ter case  he  will  have  little  difficulty  in  passing  it  on  the 
first  verdant  customer.  Counterfeit  coins  abound  in 
Spain,  Switzerland,  England,  and  some  other  countries, 
but  not  in  great  number.  The  traveler  is  sure  to  be  caught 
by  them  once  in  a  while,  and  also   by  coins  which  have 


I 


HOW   TO  TRAVEL.  107 

been  called  in  and  are  declared  uncurrent.  The  latter  can 
be  disposed  of  as  gratuities  to  waiters  and  guides,  and  the 
former  may  be  kept  as  curiosities,  or  dropped  into  the 
hats  of  importunate  beggars. 

For  a  rough  calculation  you  can  turn  your  dollars  into 
pounds  by  dividing  their  amount  by  five,  and  into  francs 
by  using  the  same  number  as  a  multiplier.  Multiply  your 
dollars  by  four  for  German  marks,  and  by  two  for  Aus- 
trian florins;  and  if  you  get  as  far  as  Turkey  and  wish  to 
reckon  in  piastres,  you  must  multiply  by  twenty.  To  reach 
the  amount  in  dollars  of  any  values  in  the  above  cur- 
rencies^ you  have  only  to  reverse  the  operation,  and  after 
a  little  practice  you  will  do  it  very  rapidly. 


CHAPTER  XL 

LANGUAGES  AND  COURIERS. 

As  long  as  the  American  is  in  the  United  Kingdom  he 
finds  no  trouble  in  making  himself  understood,  but  when 
he  crosses  the  channel  and  lands  on  the  Continent,  the  situ- 
ation changes.  Strange  languages  assail  his  ears,  and  the 
farther  he  goes  the  more  languages  he  finds.  If  he  has 
never  studied  any  tongue  save  his  mother  one,  he  will  of- 
ten find  himself  helpless,  and  he  execrates  the  memory  of 
the  man  who  first  proposed  the  erection  of  the  tower  of 
Babel,  and  thereby  brought  trouble  on  the  whole  human 
race.  He  wishes  he  had  studied  some  of  the  foreign 
lingo  before  he  left  home,  and  vows  that  before  he  comes  ^ 
again  he  will  be  able  to  make  himself  understood  ini 
French  and  German.  An  excellent  resolution  this  is,  and, ' 
like  most  good  resolves,  it  is  rarely  kept. 

An  American  who  is  entirely  ignorant  of  any  language  i 
beyond  the  vernacular  of  his  own  land  may  travel  from; 
one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other  without  any  very  serious , 
trouble.  But  he  will  pay  dear  for  his  lack  of  lingual  ac- 
complishments, as  he  will  be  regarded  as  a  fair  subject  for 
exploitation  by  the  inn-keepers,  guides,  and  others  wnthj 
whom  he  is  brought  in  contact,  and  he  cannot  go  out  oj 
the  beaten  track  of  tourists.  In  the  principal  hotels 
throughout  Europe  there  are  English-speaking  clerks  andj 
servants,  and  it  is  usually  easy  to  find  guides  and  valetsj 
who  are  able  to  get  on  in  the  language  of  the  British  Isles.| 
Those   with    deep   and  well-lined  purses   may  employ 

(108) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  109 

courier  who  will  look  after  everything — engage  rooms  at 
hotels,  buy  railway  tickets,  attend  to  the  luggage,  and  in 
various  ways  relieve  the  traveler  from  a  great  deal  of  per- 
plexity. But  he  is  a  luxury  that  only  the  affluent  can  af- 
ford, as  he  not  only  has  his  wages  and  traveling  expenses, 
but  he  obtains  a  commission,  or  "  squeeze,"  on  nearly 
every  disbursement  in  your  behalf.  He  takes  you  to  the 
best  hotels  and  secures  the  best  rooms  in  them,  and  he 
leads  you  to  the  shops  where  the  prices  are  highest,  with 
correspondingly  large  commissions.  He  is  generally  hon- 
est so  far  as  actual  plunder  of  your  money  is  concerned, 
and  he  takes  care  that  no  one  but  himself  fleeces  you, 
unless  he  can  have  a  share  of  the  spoil.  His  operations 
are  conducted  upon  well  understood  principles,  and  he 
regards  the  taking  of  a  commission  as  entirely  compatible 
with  rigid  integrity.  Now  and  then  a  courier  can  be  found 
who  disdains  commissions,  and  faithfully  watches  the  in- 
terest of  his  employer,  and  when  such  a  man  is  obtained 
he  may  be  regarded  as  a  treasure. 

Be  very  particular  in  employing  a  courier,  as  your  hap- 
piness or  misery  will  depend  in  great  measure  upon  his 
goodness  or  badness.  Your  banker  in  London  or  Paris 
can  generally  recommend  a  trustworthy  man,  and  there  is 
a  couriers'  association  in  London  that  is  well  spoken  of. 
The  association  is  responsible  for  the  honesty  of  each  mem- 
ber, and  also  for  his  sobriety  and  general  good  conduct, 
but  in  any  event  the  credentials  of  the  man  you  are  con- 
sidering should  be  carefully  examined.  Especially  should 
this  be  done  with  a  courier  who  seeks  you  and  offers  his 
services,  and  if  he  cannot  produce  good  references  he 
should  be  rejected  at  once.  The  genuineness  of  the  testi- 
monials should  also  be  investigated,  as  there  have  been 
instances  where  these  documents  were  mostly  imaginary, 
and  written  to  order. 


110  HOW   TO   TRA^-EL. 

A  courier  should  be  familiar  with  English,  French,  Ger- 
man, and  Italian,  and  if  you  are  going  to  Spain,  Russia,  or 
the  Scandinavian  countries,  you  should  seek  for  one  who 
knows  the  languages  along  your  intended  route  of  travel. 
You  can  hire  a  good  courier  for  fifty  or  sixty  dollars  a 
month,  though  he  will  frequently  ask  more,  and  you  must 
pay  extra  for  one  who  speaks  Russian,  Scandinavian,  or 
Spanish.  Whenever  there  are  second-class  carriages  on 
the  train  he  will  travel  in  them,  but  it  often  happens  that 
the  express  trains  have  none  but  first-class  coaches,  and 
in  that  event  you  must  provide  him  with  a  first-class 
ticket.  He  should  be  called  by  his  surname,  without  any 
preliminary  "  mister,"  and,  if  he  understands  his  business, 
you  can  be  perfectly  free  with  him  withoiit  fear  that  he 
will  overstep  the  proper  bounds.  Don't  invite  him  to 
sit  with  you  at  table  or  to  ride  with  you  in  a  carriage,  as 
he  does  not  expect  an}thing  of  the  sort ;  if  you  do,  you 
will  encourage  him  to  undue  familiarity,  which  may  re- 
sult in  his  assuming  the  air  of  a  gentleman  who  is  per- 
permitting  you  to  travel  with  him  for  companionship. 

In  your  financial  relations  with  him,  do  exactly  as  you 
would  with  a  clerk  or  cashier  in  business  affairs.  Have 
the  contract  carefully  drawn  in  writing  so  as  to  avoid 
misunderstandings,  and  examine  his  accounts  frequently 
and  thoroughly,  going  over  every  item,  whether  small  or 
large.  It  is  well  to  arrange  beforehand  that  he  shall 
bring  the  accounts  to  you  every  second  or  third  morning, 
and  if  he  neglects  to  do  so,  and  shows  a  persistence  in  the 
neglect,  you  will  have  reason  to  believe  he  is  not  honest. 
When  you  start  on  a  journey  give  him  money  enough  to 
pay  the  various  items  of  expenditure  to  your  first  stop- 
ping-place. It  is  not  good  policy  to  be  "  close  "  with  him, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  impolitic  to  be  careless 
of  his  accounts. 


HOAV  TO   TRAVEL.  Ill 

The  courier  is  supposed  to  pay  his  own  hotel  bill,  or  to 
be  boarded  free  of  charge  by  the  establishment.  The 
real  fact  is  that  your  own  bill  is  sufficiently  augmented  to 
cover  the  courier's  expenses,  and  in  some  instances  he  has 
been  known  to  receive  a  commission  in  money  in  addition 
to  his  free  living.  Make  it  a  part  of  your  contract  that  he 
is  to  act  as  local  guide  in  the  cities  you  visit ;  otherwise 
you  will  be  compelled  to  employ  a  guide  in  each  place  in 
addition  to  your  courier.  Some  of  the  grand  ones  refuse 
to  do  so,  and  it  is  for  you  to  determine  whether  to  engage 
a  man  of  high  notions,  or  another  who  is  not  so  exacting. 

If  not  disposed  to  incur  the  expense  of  a  courier  you  can 
hire  a  traveling  servant  for  about  half  the  price  you  will 
pay  for  the  more  distinguished  attache.  These  servants 
are  not  generally  satisfactory,  for  the  reason  that  they  do 
not  claim  to  understand  all  about  the  cities,  routes,  etc., 
and  cannot  speak  the  continental  languages.  Very  often 
they  are  quite  as  helpless  as  the  traveler  himself,  if  not 
more  so,  and  some  of  them  are  continually  getting  lost  and 
giving  no  end  of  trouble  to  their  employers  to  find  them. 

If  you  undertake  to  get  along  without  any  assistance,  it 
is  advisable  to  learn  something  of  the  language  of  the 
country  you  are  to  travel  in.  Ever  so  little  is  better  than 
none  at  all,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  much 
you  can  accomplish  with  a  very  limited  capital  of  words. 
Learn  to  count  in  French  ;  you  can  do  so  in  a  few  hours 
if  you  give  your  mind  to  it,  and  you  will  never  regret  the 
time  you  have  devoted  to  the  accomplishment  of  enumer- 
ation. Commit  to  memory  a  few  phrases,  such  as  "  where 
is  ?  "  "how  much  ?  "  and  the  like,  and  make  yourself  able 
to  understand  the  bills  of  fare  in  restaurants  and  hotels. 
When  you  have  done  this  you  can  look  proudly  down  on 
the  unfortunate  wretch  who  knows  nothing,  and  cannot 
help  himself.     After  being  thus  perfected  in  French,  you 


113  now  TO   TRAVEL. 

can  attack  German  in  the  same  %Yay,  and  afterwards 
Italian ;  if  you  are  to  be  ten  days  or  more  in  a  country  it 
is  worth  your  while  to  learn  to  count  in  its  language,  and 
when  you  have  acquired  the  numerals  you  will  want  to 
know  something  more. 

Don't  i^ractice  your  lingual  acquirements  on  your  friends 
if  you  can  find  anybody  else  to  tr}\thera  on.  But  don't  be 
afraid  to  talk  when  on  shopping  excursions,  or  in  other 
places  where  your  French  can  be  used ;  the  continental 
people  are  polite,  and  will  help  you  out  of  difficulty  when 
you  lose  your  footing,  and  they  never  smile  at  your  most 
awkward  blunders. 

Books  of  the  sentences  and  phrases  in  most  frequent 
use  are  abundant  and  cheap.  They  are  given  in  English, 
French,  German,  and  Italian,  in  parallel  columns,  and  are 
generally  divided  according  to  the  subjects  of  conversa- 
tion. They  are  excellent  in  theon,-,  but  it  is  generally  dis- 
covered in  practice  that  you  can  rarely  find  the  sentence 
you  wish  to  use,  and  may  turn  the  leaves  over  and  over 
again  to  no  purpose. 

If  you  find  that  you  are  not  understood  in  your  native 
language,  and  know  no  other,  remember  that  it  will  not 
help  the  listener's  understanding  if  you  shout  into  his  ear, 
or  repeat  a  question  over  and  over  again  with  an  increased 
emphasis  each  time. 

Many  laughable  mistakes  will  occur  in  your  efforts  to 
get  on  in  a  country  where  you  do  not  know  the  language, 
but  they  are  part  of  the  experiences  of  travel,  and  a  good 
deal  of  instruction  can  be  obtained  from  them.  Sometimes 
a  slight  change  in  the  pronunciation  of  a  single  word  or 
syllable,  or  the  incorrect  use  of  an  article,  causes  an  awk- 
ward misunderstanding,  but  all  such  accidents  should  be 
taken  good-humoredly  and  made  the  subject  of  merriment 
rather  than  of  vexation.     An  American  one  dav,  in  a  Paris 


1 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  113 

restaurant,  wished  to  call  for  bread,  and  was  astonished 
when  the  waiter  after  some  delay  brought  him  stewed 
rabbit.  He  pondered  over  the  subject,  and  finally  remem- 
bered that  instead  of  saying  "  die  pain,  "  he  had  made  it 
"/^ /«:?■«,"  which  was  naturally  supposed  to  be  '"'■  taping'' 
the  French  word  for  rabbit  or  hare.  He  ate  the  stew  in 
silence,  and  never  allowed  the  waiter  to  understand  that  a 
«  mistake  had  been  made. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  party  of  Americans  taking  a  ride  in 
the  Bois  du  Boulogne,  and  they  wished  to  induce  the 
driver  to  go  faster,  but  the  more  they  urged,  the  more  an- 
gry he  became,  and  their  attempts  at  the  French  for  "  go 
faster,  driver,"  seemed  to  set  him  wild.  At  last  he 
stopped  and  wanted  to  fight,  and  when  they  refused  to  in- 
dulge in  a  trial  of  muscular  capacity,  he  called  a  police- 
man. Some  one  happened  along  at  this  juncture  who 
could  act  as  interpreter,  and  it  was  discovered  that  they 
had  been  addressing  the  jehu  as  "  cochon  "  (pig)  instead  of 
^^ cocker"  (driver).  An  explanation  was  made,  the  driver 
received  a  franc  as  a  salve  to  his  wounded  dignity,  and 
the  drive  was  continued  at  a  more  satisfactory  speed. 

Many  things  may  be  said  in  pantomime  where  you  are 
ignorant  of  the  words  that  are  needed.  If  you  wish  to 
employ  a  carriage  by  the  hour,  and  cannot  grapple  with 
'•  a  rheure"  you  can  show  the  face  of  your  watch  to  the 
driver  and  point  to  the  time  ;  he  will  understand  your 
meaning  at  once,  and  will  indicate  his  comprehension  of  it 
by  a  nod.  If  you  wish  the  carriage  for  only  a  single  course 
you  do  not  show  your  watch  at  all,  but  simply  give  or 
show  the  address  to  which  you  want  to  go.  A  desire  for 
food  or  drink  may  be  manifested  by  the  conveyance  of 
imaginary  viands  or  liquids  to  the  mouth,  and  following 
the  said  conveyance  with  equally  imaginary  mastication 
or  deglutition.     Mistakes  will  occur  in  pantomime  as  well 


114  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

as  in  spoken  words,  and  the  traveler  should  be  prepared 
for  them.  An  Englishman  at  a  German  inn  endeavored 
to  show  that  he  wished  to  go  to  bed,  and  did  it  by  com- 
mencing the  removal  of  his  clothing,  and  making  a  motion 
with  his  arms,  as  if  he  would  spread  himself  over  the  in- 
visible couch.  The  inn-keeper  nodded,  and  disappeared ; 
and  he  soon  returned,  followed  by  the  servants,  bringing  a 
large  tub  and  some  water,  under  the  impression  that  the 
stranger  wished  to  take  a  bath.  The  latter  made  himself 
understood  by  resting  his  head  on  his  hand  and  closing 
his  eyes,  whereupon  there  was  a  laugh  all  around,  and  he 
was  shown  to  his  sleeping-room. 

Not  infrequently  you  will  throw  yourself  into  a  condi- 
tion of  exhaustion  by  mustering  all  your  French  for  an 
effort ;  after  it  is  made,  and  you  are  at  your  wit's  end,  you 
are  answered  in  English,  and  find  that  your  mental  strug- 
gle has  been  thrown  away.  During  the  last  Paris  exposi- 
tion one  of  the  hotels  imported  a  lot  of  waiters  from  Lon- 
don for  the  benefit  of  their  English  patrons.  A  Briton 
arrived  at  this  house  one  morning,  unaware  of  the  impor- 
tation, and  after  making  himself  presentable  he  proceeded 
to  the  breakfast-room.  Beckoning  to  a  waiter,  he  gave  his 
order. 

"  Donnez  moi  dii  biftek,  du  pomme  de  terre,  et  du  cafe  au 
latt."  (Give  me  a  beefsteak,  potatoes,  and  coffee  with 
milk.) 

He  was  at  the  end  of  his  French,  and  drew  a  long  breath 
as  he  finished  the  sentence.  The  waiter  listened  atten- 
tively, with  a  blank  expression  on  his  face,  and  replied : — 

"  If  it's  all  the  same,  sir,  couldn't  you  just  as  well  do  it 
in  English }     I've  only  been  here  three  days." 

Whether  you  can  speak  the  continental  languages  or 
not,  you  must  put  yourself  into  the  hands  of  a  dragoman 
when  you  go  to  the  Orient  and  endeavor  to  make  a  jour- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  115 

ney  into  the  interior.  The  dragoman  differs  from  the 
courier  in  being  a  contractor  who  undertakes  to  manage 
your  journey  for  a  fixed  sum  per  day,  or  for  the  entire 
trip,  and  he  makes  a  margin  sufficiently  large  to  include 
the  compensation  for  his  own  services.  He  combines  the 
services  of  courier,  butler,  and  maitre  d'hotel  all  in  one, 
and  a  good  dragoman  is  able  to  relieve  the  traveler  of  all 
trouble  by  attending  to  every  kind  of  petty  detail,  and 
managing  the  journey  so  that  the  tourist  has  nothing  to 
think  of  beyond  enjoying  himself. 

Dragomen  are  of  all  kinds,  from  the  worst  to  the  best ; 
most  of  them  bring  recommendations  from  former  em- 
ployers, and,  while  these  should  have  due  weight,  it  is  best 
not  to  rely  on  them  implicitly.  There  are  some  of  the  pro- 
fession who  enjoy  a  high  reputation,  and  their  prices  are 
fixed  accordingly ;  a  cheap  dragoman  is  almost  sure  to  be 
a  poor  one,  but  not  all  high-priced  ones  are  necessarily 
good.  If  possible,  when  starting  for  a  journey  in  Syria 
and  Egypt,  get  a  friend  who  has  been  there  before  you  to 
recommend  a  dragoman,  and  make  a  careful  note  of  the 
name  and  address,  so  that  there  can  be  no  mistake.  Good 
ones  may  also  be  heard  of  around  the  consulate  of  your 
country,  and  in  whatever  bargain  you  make  you  should 
have  the  consular  approval.  The  dragomen  who  hang 
about  the  hotels  are  not  to  be  relied  on,  as  they  are  often 
in  league  with  the  establishments  to  make  something  out 
of  the  stranger,  or  have  agreed  to  pay  a  commission  to 
whoever  can  get  them  an  engagement. 

George  William  Curtis,  in  his  Nile  Notes,  says,  "  The 
dragoman  is  of  four  species  ;  the  Maltese,  or  able  knave  ; 
the  Greek,  or  the  cunning  knave ;  the  Syrian,  or  the  active 
knave  ;  and  the  Egyptian,  or  the  stupid  knave."  The  des- 
cription is  by  no  means  inaccurate,  but  it  gives  the  impres- 
sion that  all  are  knaves,  whatever  their  race  or  nationality. 


116  HOW   TO  TRAYEl.. 

There  is  little  to  choose  between  them,  and  whatever  kind 
you  employ  it  is  quite  possible  you  may  wish  you  had 
taken  another.  There  are  honest  and  efficient  ones  among 
all  the  different  races,  and  also  a  liberal  allowance  of 
those  who  are  worthless,  or  even  worse. 

Detailed  directions  for  engaging  dragomen,  and  the 
forms  of  contracts  to  be  made  with  them,  can  be  found  in 
the  guide-books  of  Murray  and  Baedeker,  to  which  the 
reader  is  referred.  Never  trust  yourself  to  draw  a  con- 
tract that  will  be  "  iron-clad,"  but  go  to  your  consulate  and 
have  the  matter  attended  to  there,  at  a  cost  of  five  dollars. 
Then,  in  case  of  trouble,  the  consul  can  be  called  to  arbi- 
trate the  matter,  and  his  decision  will  be  final.  As  you  are 
required  to  pay  half,  or  more,  of  the  engagement-money 
at  the  time  of  making  the  contract,  you  thus  place  your- 
self at  the  mercy  of  the  man  you  are  engaging,  and  it  is 
worth  while  to  be  cautious. 

If  a  particular  dragoman  has  been  recommended  to  you 
by  some  friend  at  home,  you  will  very  likely  be  told  on  en- 
quiring for  him  that  he  died  a  few  months  ago.  Of  course, 
it  is  just  possible  that  he  is  no  longer  alive,  as  drago — like 
other  men — are  but  mortal,  but  his  death  at  that  time  is 
by  no  means  a  certainty.  His  rivals  have  a  convenient 
way  of  ridding  themselves  of  his  competition  by  killing 
him  metaphorically,  and  they  are  particular  to  state  time, 
place,  and  circumstances  with  great  minuteness.  Bayard 
Taylor  became  much  attached  to  his  dragoman  in  his 
journey  up  the  Nile  in  1852,  and  recommended  him,  a  few 
years  afterwards,  to  some  friends.  They  brought  back  the 
information  of  the  man's  death,  but  on  visiting  Cairo  in 
1874  Taylor  found  his  old  companion  alive  and  well,  and 
very  much  chagrined  at  the  announcement  of  his  de- 
mise. "  He  is  dead,"  or  "  He  has  just  left  with  a  party," 
is  the  stereotyped  answer  of  the  dragomen  you  encounter 


HOW  TO  TKAVEL.  117 

around  the  hotels  when  you  ask  for  one  whose  name  has 
been  given  to  you  by  a  friend  at  home,  although  it  is  well 
known  by  them  that  the  man  in  question  is  within  a  dozen 
blocks  of  them,  and  waiting  for  a  job. 

It  is  the  custom  at  the  end  of  a  journey  in  the  Holy 
Land,  or  on  the  Nile,  to  make  a  present  to  the  servants 
in  addition  to  the  contract-price  agreed  upon  with  the  drag- 
oman or  manager  of  the  party.  The  dragoman  is  always 
ready  to  attend  to  the  distribution  of  this  gratuity,  and 
shows  great  activity  in  looking  after  it.  Verdant  travelers 
are  apt  to  place  the  affair  and  the  money  in  his  hands  with 
the  expectation  that  he  will  carry  out  their  wishes ;  the 
only  distribution  he  makes,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  is  to 
distribute  the  cash  around  the  pockets  of  his  own  gar- 
ments, and  leave  tl^e  other  servants  without  a  penny.  Un- 
less you  give  the  money  to  the  waiters  with  your  own 
hands  the  chances  are  ten  to  one  they  will  get  nothing, 
and  the  whole  amount  will  go  to  enrich  the  dragoman ;  it 
will  not  even  answer  to  allow  that  worthy  to  distribute  it 
to  them  in  your  presence,  as  he  will  manage  by  certain 
dexterous  turns  of  the  wrist  to  retain  the  larger  portion 
for  himself.  Complaints  of  his  misconduct  are  unlikely 
to  reach  your  ears,  as  the  servants  are  his  subordinates, 
and  liable  to  lose  their  places  if  they  incur  his  displeasure. 
The  writer  was  once  a  member  of  a  party  on  a  Nile  steam- 
boat that  made  up  a  purse  for  the  servants ;  while  the 
money  was  being  raised  two  or  three  of  the  cabin-waiters 
intimated  privately  that  if  the  money  was  put  in  the  hands 
of  the  dragoman  they  would  get  nothing,  since  he  always 
kept  the  whole  of  it.  "  Whatever  you  give  us,"  said  they, 
*'  please  put  in  our  own  hands,"  and  we  acted  on  the  hint 
to  the  great  disgust  of  the  dragoman. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

RAILWAY   TRAVELING  ON  THE  CONTINENT. 

The  American  traveler  who  makes  his  first  tour  abroad 
will  come  upon  something  new  as  soon  as  he  visits  a  rail- 
way station.  The  cars  are  quite  unlike  those  to  which  he 
has  been  accustomed  at  home  ;  they  have  no  passage-way 
running  the  whole  length  of  the  vehicle,  and  most  of  them 
present  a  Lilliputian  appearance  when  compared  with  the 
American  passenger  car.  They  are  diyided  into  compart- 
ments which  generally  contain  seats  for  eight  persons, 
and  are  entered  by  doors  at  either  end.  The  occupants  of 
a  compartment  face  each  other,  so  that  when  the  place  is 
full  half  the  passengers  are  riding  backwards  and  the 
other  half  forwards.  Some  persons  are  made  ill  unless 
they  have  their  faces  in  the  direction  they  are  traveling ;  a 
tourist  who  belongs  to  this  categor)-  should  make  sure  of 
his  place  by  the  aid  of  a  porter,  and  there  is  generally  no 
trouble  about  the  matter.  Those  who  are  not  disturbed 
by  the  aforesaid  nausea  prefer  to  sit  with  their  backs 
toward  the  locomotive,  as  they  escape  a  good  deal  of  the 
dust  and  smoke  that  fall  to  the  lot  of  those  in  the  "  front- 
face  "  position.  There  is  a  large  window  in  the  upper 
half  of  the  door,  and  there  are  smaller  windows  at  the 
ends  of  the  rows  of  seats  ;  if  you  have  your  back  towards 
the  engine,  and  are  in  an  end  seat,  the  open  window  in  the 
door  will  give  you  all  the  air  you  need,  while  in  the  oppo- 
site seat  you  might  find  the  breeze  too  strong.  A  seat  on 
the  windward  side  of  the  train  is  preferable  to  a  leeward 

(118) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  119 

one,  though  much  will  depend  upon  the  position  of  the 
sun  and  the  scenery  along  the  route. 

On  the  Swiss  railways  many  of  the  carriages  are  on  the 
American  system,  with  doors  at  the  ends  and  a  passage- 
way in  the  center,  but  they  still  cling  to  the  compartment 
idea,  and  have  partitions  with  doors  that  permit  free  cir- 
culation. In  Italy,  and  some  other  countries,  you  occasion- 
ally find  a  carriage  with  a  saloon  in  the  center,  capable  of 
seating  twelve  or  sixteen  persons,  but  such  cars  are  not 
common,  and  arc  considered  a  luxury  to  be  specially  or- 
dered. Some  of  the  first-class  carriages  have  the  com- 
partments arranged  for  six  passengers — three  on  a  side — 
but  the  majority  are  intended  for  eight.  On  every  train 
you  will  usually  find  one  or  more  carriages  with  a  coupe  at 
the  end ;  it  can  be  made  to  hold  four  persons,  but  there  is 
no  advantage  in  securing  it  for  more  than  two.  It  js  con- 
sidered as  a  place  de  luxe,  and  can  only  be  occupied  by 
paymient  of  an  extra  charge,  which  is  usually  about  one- 
sixth  of  the  price  of  the  passage  ticket.  Two  persons  in 
a  coup6  are  tolerably  certain  not  to  be  disturbed  by  the 
entrance  of  other  passengers,  but  a  single  passenger  is  not 
so  safe.  The  coupe  may  be  engaged  beforehand  on  appli- 
cation to  the  station-master,  but  the  companies  will  never 
guarantee  that  a  particular  train  will  contain  coupe  car- 
riages. 

The  Pullman  palace  and  sleeping-cars  have  not  been  in- 
troduced in  Europe  to  any  extent,  nothwithstanding  per- 
sistent efforts  by  the  Pullman  Company  for  a  decade  or 
more.  The  Midland  Railway  Company,  of  England,  has 
adopted  them,  and  they  are  used  on  two  or  three  smaller 
lines  in  the  United  Kingdom,  but  not  in  any  great  number. 
On  the  Continent  they  have  found  their  principal  footing 
in  Italy,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Strada  Ferrata  deVAlta 
Italia  (Railway  of  Upper  Italy),  which  has  adopted  them 


120  HOW   TO  TRAVEL. 

for  the  comfort  of  passengers  on  the  Indian  mail  route  be- 
tween London  and  Brindisi.  On  several  of  the  continental 
lines  the  Alann  Boudoir  sleeping-car  has  been  introduced; 
it  is  the  enterprise  of  an  American,  and  is  a  very  service 
able  vehicle,  though  less  comfortable  than  the  famous  Pull 
man.  The  Mann  car  is  the  ordinary  European  railwa)! 
carriage  equipped  with  sleeping  accommodations,  lava- 
tories and  the  like ;  the  traveler  must  have  a  first-class 
ticket  to  be  admitted,  and  he  pays  in  addition  about  $2.50 
per  night.  There  are  offices  in  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna,  and 
other  large  cities,  where  places  may  be  secured  in  the 
Mann  sleeping-cars  just  as  they  are  secured  in  the  Pullman 
cars  in  America. 

Some  of  the  companies  have  cars  fitted  up  with  the 
"  fauteuil-lit,"  or  bed-chair  ;  it  is  the  ordinary  seat  so  ar- 
ranged that  it  may  be  coverted  into  a  bed,  or  a  poor  sub- 
stitute for  one,  and  the  extra  cost  is  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
equal  to  a  third  of  the  price  of  the  ticket.  Three  fauteuils- 
lits  fill  a  compartment,  and  the  occupants  of  those  away 
from  the  door  must  climb  over  the  one  nearest  to  it  in  get- 
ting in  or  out  after  the  beds  have  been  opened.  Very  few  of 
the  roads  have  any  kind  of  sleeping-carriage  whatever, 
and  the  night  traveler  on  long  journeys  will  miss  the  lux- 
uries that  he  finds  in  the  United  States.  "  Bless  the  name 
of  Pullman,"  he  will  often  exclaim,  as  he  crawls,  dusty 
and  disjointed,  from  where  he  has  sat  bolt  or  limply  up>- 
right  for  hours,  and  contrasts  his  present  feelings  with 
those  he  would  have  at  the  end  of  a  journey  from  New 
York  to  Chicago.  There  are  no  toilet  facilities  on  the 
European  trains,  with  the  exception  of  those  on  the  few 
sleeping-cars  in  use,  and  retiring-closets  are  by  no  means 
universal.  Most  of  the  coupes  contain  them,  and  they 
can  generally  be  found  in  the  baggage-wagon  or  under  the 
brake-van.     The  keys  of  these  "  cabinets  "  are  in  charge 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  121 

of  the  conductor,  who  will  readily  open  them  on  applica- 
tion, but  they  can  only  be  reached  or  left  while  the  train 
is  halted  at  a  station. 

The  carriages  are  of  three  and  sometimes  four  classes, 
and  their  character  is  indicated  in  different  ways  in  differ- 
ent countries.  In  England  they  are  labelled  "  first-class," 
"  second-class,"  or  "  third-class,"  as  the  case  may  be  ;  in 
France  they  are  marked  "  premiere,"  "seconde,"  "trol- 
sieme,"  or  with  the  abbreviation  of  those  words  into 
figures  and  letters,  and  in  Germany  and  some  other  coun- 
tries by  "  I,"  "  II,"  "  III."  Sometimes  you  find  only  the 
figures  "  I,"  "  2,"  and  "  3  "  on  the  doors  of  the  carriages 
to  indicate  the  class,  and  sometimes  the  designation  is  by 
a  number  of  stars,  corresponding  to  the  class.  When  you 
leave  a  carriage  temporarily  at  a  station,  be  careful  to  ob- 
serve and  remember  its  number,  or  you  may  have  , diffi- 
culty in  finding  it  when  you  return.  If  you  have  the  num- 
ber and  class  well  in  mind,  you  will  not  be  likely  to  make 
a  mistake. 

Nearly  every  train  will  have  one  or  more  compart- 
ments exclusively  for  ladies  ;  they  are  labelled  "  Dames 
Seules  "  in  France,  "  Damen  Coupe,"  or  "  Fur  Damen," 
in  Germany,  and  "  Per  Signore  "  in  Italy.  The  sterner 
sex  is  not  allowed  in  these  carriages  under  any  pretext 
whatever ;  even  the  offer  of  a  piece  of  mioney,  so  potent 
in  other  matters,  will  not  secure  the  violation  of  the  rule. 
Smoking  is  forbidden  except  in  compartments  specially 
designated  for  that  amusement ;  in  France  smoking-car- 
riages are  labelled  "  Pour  Fumeurs,'.'  and  in  Italy  "  Per 
Fumare."  The  Germans  get  at  the  subject  in  the  oppo- 
site way  by  allowing  smoking  in  all  carriages  save  those 
wherein  it  is  forbidden ;  these  are  labelled  "  Nickt 
Rauken,"  but  if  an  entire  party  in  one  of  them  chooses  to 
suspend  the  rules,  it  may  do  so.     It  is  customary  in  case 


122  now  TO   TRAVEL. 

of  doubt  to  ask  permission  to  smoke,  and  if  any  person 
objects,  the  rule  must  be  obeyed. 

In  Germany  the  second-class  carriages  are  quite  com- 
fortable, but  they  are  apt  to  be  crowded,  and  the  traveler 
who  desires  plenty  of  room  will  do  well  to  buy  a  first-class 
ticket.  The  first-class  vehicles  are  upholstered  with  vel- 
vet, and  the  second  with  cloth  ;  the  former  are  often  the 
more  uncomfortable  in  hot  weather,  as  the  velvet  retains 
more  heat  than  the  cloth.  The  third-class  carriages  have 
seats  of  plain  boards,  and  the  fourth-class  no  seats  at  all ; 
if  you  travel  fourth-class  in  Germany,  you  must  stand  and 
cling  to  an  iron  rod,  or,  if  there  are  not  many  passengers, 
you  may  sit  or  lie  on  the  floor.  Fourth-class  is  rarely 
found  in  any  other  country  than  Germany,  and  only  where 
there  is  a  considerable  amount  of  travel  among  those  who 
cannot  afford  to  pay  for  the  higher  grades.  Second-class 
in  Germany  is  nearly  if  not  quite  as  comfortable  as  first- 
class  in  France  or  Italy,  and  this  is  so  well  understood 
that  "  mixed  "  tickets  are  sold  for  long  journeys,  entitling 
the  holder  to  first-class  in  other  countries  and  second  in 
Germany. 

In  some  countries,  but  not  in  all,  there  is  a  difference  in 
fares,  according  to  the  speed  of  the  train  by  which  you 
take  passage,  so  that  a  given  distance  costs  less  by  a  way- 
train  than  by  an  express.  In  France  and  Italy  the  quick- 
est trains  are  generally  made  up  of  first-class  carriages 
only,  so  that  the  economical  voyageur  must  content  him- 
self to  move  more  slowly  than  his  first-class  rival.  The 
fares  by  mixed  trains  (freight  and  passengers)  are  often 
only  about  a  third  of  those  of  the  first-class  expresses. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  in  Austria  and  all  the  South 
German  States. 

The  allowance  of  baggage  varies  greatly.  In  England 
it  is  one  hundred  pounds,  but  the  weight  is  not  always 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  123 

taken,  and  even  if  it  is  considerably  in  excess,  a  shilling 
in  the  hand  of  the  man  who  weighs  it  will  cause  a  sudden 
diminution  of  its  avoirdupois,  so  as  to  bring  it  within  the 
limit.  This  is  particularly  the  case  on  the  roads  where 
notices  are  posted  forbidding  the  employes  of  the  com- 
panies  to  receive  gratuities,  under  penalty  of  dismissal. 
In  France  and  Spain  the  allowance  is  thirty  kilogrammes 
(about  sixty-five  pounds).  In  most  parts  of  Germany  it  is 
fifty  pounds,  and  sometimes  sixty,  and  in  Bavaria,  Italy, 
and  most  parts  of  Switzerland  there  is  no  allowance,  and 
every  pound  of  luggage  must  be  paid  for.  In  Austria  the 
traveler,  no  matter  what  class  ticket  he  holds,  is  allowed 
fifty-five  pounds.  In  Russia  fifty-five,  in  Sweden  sixty- 
six  pounds  to  first-class  and  forty-seven  to  second-class, 
and  in  Denmark  fifty-five  pounds.  The  rates  for  excessive 
luggage  are  pretty  high,  and  in  the  countries  where  no  al- 
lowance is  made  the  rate  of  transportation  is  worse  than 
in  any"  other. 

The  sale  of  tickets  ceases  from  five  to  ten  minutes  be- 
fore the  departure  of  a  train,  and  the  registration  of  lug- 
gage not  less  than  fifteen  minutes.  The  traveler  first 
buys  his  ticket  and  then  goes  to  the  baggage  agent,  who 
stands  in  a  little  office  close  to  the  baggage-counter.  The 
baggage  is  weighed  and  the  weight  declared  by  one  of  the 
attendants  ;  the  agent  takes  the  ticket,  stamps  it  to  show 
that  it  has  received  its  baggage  allowance,  then  fills  out  a 
receipt  stating  the  number  of  trunks,  their  weight,  and 
the  amount  paid  (if  any).  Where  there  is  no  excess  there 
is  usually  a  charge  of  ten  centimes  (two  cents)  for  the  re- 
ceipt ;  the  paper  should  be  carefully  guarded,  as  its  pro- 
duction is  necessary  at  the  destination  to  secure  the  deliv- 
ery of  the  baggage.  The  attentive  traveler  who  closely 
scans  his  receipt  will  find  that  there  is  a  column  for  dogs, 
and  if  he  investigates  the  train  he  will  discover  a  com- 
partment for  those  animals,  with  grated  doors. 


124  HOW  TO  TIIA\'EL. 

On  most  of  the  English  roads  no  receipt  is  given  for 
baggage,  and  the  traveler  must  take  the  chances  of  its  loss. 
A  label  showing  its  destination  is  pasted  on  your  trunk, 
and  when  you  are  at  the  journey's  end  you  must  go  to  the 
platform  where  the  contents  of  the  van  have  been  dis- 
charged, and  pick  out  your  property.  Attempts  have 
been  made  to  introduce  the  American  checking  system 
in  England,  but  the  English  are  too  conservative  to  take 
up  with  such  a  Yankee  notion. 

Ticket  and  baggage  arranged,  the  traveler  is  permitted 
to  go  to  the  waiting-room.  There  the  intending  passen- 
gers (no  others  are  admitted)  are  huddled  together  till 
within  a  few  minutes  of  the  departure  of  the  train,  and 
very  often  the  room  is  overcrowded,  and  cheerless  in  the 
extreme.  Passengers  are  not  allowed  on  the  platforms 
till  everything  is  ready,  and  sometimes  there  is  hardly 
time  for  all  to  get  comfortably  seated  before  the  train 
moves.  Latterly  some  of  the  roads  have  made  a  reform 
in  this  matter  ;  the  Paris,  Lyon  dr'  Mediterranee  was  the 
first  to  relax  the  rules  and  allow  passengers  to  go  direct 
to  the  platform,  after  passing  the  supervisor  of  tickets, 
instead  of  shivering  or  crowding  in  the  waiting-room.  On 
some  lines  the  porters  are  not  permitted  to  enter  the  wait- 
ing-rooms, and  passengers  must  carry  their  own  satchels 
and  other  impedimenta,  while  on  others  the  porters  can  go 
direct  to  the  carriages,  and  secure  desirable  seats  for 
actual  or  expected  return  in  cash. 

On  account  of  the  high  tariff  for  extra  baggage,  trav- 
elers on  the  Continent  usually  carry  more*  in  their  hands 
than  would  be  the  case  with  the  same  people  in  America. 
Parcels  may  be  stowed  under  the  seats  or  in  the  racks 
overhead,  but  no  one  is  allowed  to  have  an)-thing  that 
will  be  an  inconvenience  to  others  in  the  same  compart- 
ment.    This  rule  is  not  rigidly  enforced,  as  will  often  be 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  125 

seen  ;  the  old  woman  with  six  bandboxes  and  three  bun- 
dles is  as  common  in  Europe  as  she  was  traditionally  in 
America,  and  very  often  it  is  impossible  for  eight  passen- 
gers to  dispose  of  ail  their  "  traps  "  without  holding  some 
of  them  on  their  knees. 

Railway  fares  are  much  higher  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Atlantic  than  on  the  western,  and  those  of  England 
are  dearer  than  the  fares  on  the  Continent.  The  Eng- 
lish fares  are  threepence,  twopence,  and  one  penny  a  mile 
for  the  respective  classes  ;  i.  ^.,  about  six  cents,  four  cents, 
and  two  cents  of  Atnerican  currency.  In  France  the  rate 
is  calculated  at  twelve  centimes,  the  kilometre  which  is 
equivalent  to  very  nearly  twenty  centimes  (four  cents),  the 
mile.  This  is  for  first-class  ;  third-class  is  half  the  price 
of  first-class,  and  second-class  midway  between  the  two. 
Italian  fares  are  a  trifle  higher  than  those  of  France,  while 
those  of  Belgium,  Bavaria,  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Ger- 
many are  lower.  A  rough  calculation  of  the  cost  of  travel 
by  railway  may  be  made  by  allowing  four  cents  to  the 
mile  for  first-class,  and  the  corresponding  rates  for  the 
other  classes.  Another  mode  of  ready  reckoning  is  to 
allow  five  francs  (one  dollar)  per  hour  for  the  time  re- 
quired for  transit  from  one  city  to  another  by  first-class 
ordinary  trains,  and  six  francs  an  hour  for  the  fast  ex- 
presses. For  example,  the  fare  from  Paris  to  Marseilles 
is  one  hundred  and  six  francs,  twenty  centimes,  and  the 
distance  is  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three  kilometres,  or 
five  hundred  and  thirty-nine  miles.  There  is  a  train  called 
the  "  Rapide "  that  runs  through  in  fifteen  hours,  and 
makes  only  eight  stoppages ;  the  ordinary  express  takes 
a  trifle  over  twenty  hours  for  the  same  journey,  and  the 
so-called  "  Directe  "  train  requires  twenty-three  hours. 
The  direct  train  contains  carriages  of  the  three  classes, 
but  the  express  and  "  Rapide  "  are  exclusively  first-class. 


126  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

Any  one  who  is  curious  in  arithmetic  can  apply  the  rules 
given  above,  and  will  find  that  they  bring  the  result  near 
enough  for  rough  estimates. 

Return  tickets  are  sold  at  various  discounts  from  the 
full  rates,  generally  about  twenty-five  per  cent,  less  than 
the  double  fare.  They  are  sometimes  good  only  for  the 
day  of  issue,  but  are  usually  available  for  two  days,  and  in 
some  countries  for  four  or  five.  On  some  lines  they  do 
not  issue  return  tickets  for  express  trains,  or  for  trains 
exclusively  first-class.  The  holder  of  a  return  ticket  (first- 
class)  often  feels  that  he  is  harshly  treated  when  refused  a 
place  on  a  train  of  first-class  coaches  only,  and  if  he  can- 
not speak  the  language,  it  is  impossible  to  make  him  com- 
prehend the  rules  of  the  company. 

Circular  tickets  are  issued  at  a  great  reduction  from  the 
single  fares,  but  they  are  subject  to  certain  restrictions 
that  go  far  toward  counterbalancing  the  saving  in  money. 
A  circular  ticket  is  limited  in  time,  according  to  the  lo- 
calities it  covers ;  it  may  be  available  for  only  one  week 
from  the  date,  or  it  make  be  good  for  three  months,  or 
even  longer.  The  journey  can  commence  at  any  point  of 
the  route,  but  once  begun  it  must  be  continued  in  the  same 
direction,  and  on  the  route  indicated,  and  if  it  is  not  com- 
pleted within  the  time  specified,  no  money  will  be  returned 
for  unused  coupons.  If  the  traveler  halts  at  any  interme- 
diate station  not  indicated  on  the  itinerary,  he  must  pay 
his  fare  to  the  next  indicated  station  on  resuming  his  jour- 
ney, and  he  is  also  required  to  have  his  ticket  stamped  by 
the  proper  official  when  he  arrives  at  a  station  where  he  is 
to  stop. 

These  circular  tickets  are  highly  popular,  and  have  been 
the  means  of  creating  a  great  deal  of  travel  by  reason  of 
their  cheapness.  A  tourist  who  selects  his  route  and  finds 
a  circular  ticket  that  covers  it  will  make  a  large  saving 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  127 

over  the  single  fares  from  one  place  to  another.  To  illus- 
trate :  the  writer  once  bought  for  one  hundred  francs  a 
circular  ticket  (first-class)  with  the  following  itinerary : 
Paris,  Vichy,  Lyons,  Grenoble,  Aix-les-Bains,  Culoz,  Be- 
san9on,  Dijon,  Paris,  with  the  option  of  returning  from 
Grenoble  by  way  of  Lyons,  Macon,  and  Dijon  to  Paris, 
instead  of  passing  by  Besan9on  and  Dijon.  The  single 
fares  from  place  to  place  would  have  aggregated  some- 
thing over  two  hundred  francs  for  the  journey.  In  many 
instances  the  saving  by  a  circular  ticket  is  considerably 
more  than  one-half. 

The  circular  tickets  issued  by  the  railway  companies 
should  not  be  confounded  with  those  sold  by  private  indi- 
viduals in  London,  Paris,  New  York,  and  other  cities. 
The  railway  companies  sell  their  own  tickets  at  their  own 
offices  or  agencies ;  it  frequently  happens  that  the  most 
direct  of  the  lines  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  "  tour- 
ist agencies,"  so  that  those  who  patronize  the  latter  estab- 
lishments find  that  they  are  sent  by  roundabout  ways  from 
one  great  city  to  another. 

At  all  the  principal  ticket-offices  on  the  railway  lines 
there  is  a  table  of  fares  near  the  window  ;  it  is  printed  in 
large  letters  and  figures  so  that  there  is  little  chance  of  a 
mistake.  And  in  most  countries  there  is  an  additional 
security  to  the  traveler ;  the  fare  is  printed  on  the  ticket 
in  plain  figures,  so  that  the  most  laudable  intentions  of  the 
seller  to  cheat  the  stranger  may  be  frustrated,  provided 
the  latter  knows  enough  to  count  his  money. 

In  Northern  Europe,  especially  in  Russia,  the  carriages 
are  warmed  by  stoves,  though  sometimes  the  first-class 
passengers  are  the  only  ones  having  the  benefits  of  heat. 
In  Central  and  Southern  Europe  long  C3'linders  of  sheet 
iron  containing  hot  water  are  thrust  into  the  compartments 
at  intervals  more  or  less  regular  ;  by  means  of  these  cylin- 


128  HOW  TO  tea"^t:l. 

ders  the  traveler  can  keep  his  feet  comfortable,  and  if  the 
weather  is  not  too  frosty,  they  give  all  the  heat  to  be  de- 
sired in  the  compartment.  In  cold  weather  the  railway 
traveler  should  be  well  provided  with  wraps,  as  the  night 
air  has  a  penetrating  familiarity,  especially  when  the  wind 
is  blowing. 

Eating-rooms,  or  "  buffets,"  are  abundant,  and  generally 
good.  The  best  are  on  the  long  lines  where  there  is  a 
large  amount  of  through  travel,  so  that  a  good  patronage 
is  secured,  and  the  trains  halt  there  at  convenient  hours 
for  meals.  The  table  d'hote  system  prevails,  but  there 
are  always  plenty-  of  small  tables  where  those  who  do  not 
want  a  "  square  meal  "  can  be  accommodated.  The  price 
of  a  table  d'hote  breakfast  varies  from  two  francs,  fifty 
centimes,  to  four  francs,  and  that  of  a  dinner  from  three 
francs  to  five  francs,  wine  included.  On  most  of  the  lines 
the  keepers  of  the  restaurants  are  required  to  post  a  no- 
tice in  a  conspicuous  place,  showing  the  prices  of  meals, 
so  as  to  prevent  any  possible  cheating ;  any  complaint  ad- 
dressed to  the  management  of  the  road  is  pretty  certain  to 
receive  attention,  as  the  companies  are  desirous  of  having 
the  best  possible  service. 

A  table  d'hote  breakfast  or  dinner  on  the  great  lines, 
especially  on  the  Paris,  Lyon  &  Mediterranee,  is  the  per- 
fection of  railway  feeding,  and  the  most  rapid  eater  the 
world  ever  saw  cannot  complain  of  the  dilatoriness  of  the 
waiters.  The  conductor  generally  telegraphs  the  number 
of  passengers  on  the  train,  so  that  the  restaurateur  knows 
pretty  nearly  how  many  will  patronize  him ;  as  the  train 
rolls  into  the  station,  the  first  dish  of  the  course  is  placed 
on  the  table,  and  you  have  only  to  drop  into  a  chair  and 
begin  eating.  Before  you  are  through  with  the  first  course 
the  second  is  at  your  side,  and  the  third  is  there  before 
you  can  possibly  finish  with  the  second.     Thus  the  meal 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  129 

is  served,  and  when  it  is  near  its  end  the  cashier  passes 
around  and  collects  the  stipulated  money.  The  time  al- 
lowed is  from  fifteen  to  thirty  minutes  ;,  five  minutes  before 
the  moment  of  starting^  a  bell  rings  or  a  gong  is  struck,  or 
perhaps  a  horn  in  blown,  and  the  signal  is  repeated  four 
minutes  later,  and  when  you  hear  the  second  signal  there 
is  no  more  chance  for  delay,  as  the  train,  like  time  and 
tide,  will  wait  for  no  man.  The  form  of  the  signal,  and  also 
the  period  of  giving  it,  are  not  the  same  in  all  countries, 
and  the  verdant  traveler  will  do  well  to  watch  the  motions 
of  his  neighbors,  and  be  governed  accordingly.  The 
buffets  are  divided  into  the  first,  second,  and  third  class  at 
the  great  stations,  and  there  are  waiting-rooms  with  the 
same  distinctions.  In  France  the  smaller  stations  are 
known  as  "  stations,"  and  the  larger  ones,  especially  at 
terminal  points,  are  called  "gares."  "Bahnhof  "  in  Ger- 
many, and  "  stazione  "  in  Italy  means  the  same  as  "  sta- 
tion "  in  England  and  "  depot  "  in  the  United  States. 

On  some  of  the  roads  meals  are  served  in  baskets,  so 
that  they  can  be  eaten  while  the  train  is  in  motion.  An 
hour  or  more  before  you  arrive  at  the  restaurant  station, 
the  conductor,  or  some  other  employe  of  the  company, 
takes  your  order  for  a  breakfast  or  dinner  according  to  a 
bill  of  fare  which  he  presents.  The  order  is  telegraphed 
forward,  and  you  are  told  to  ask  for  a  certain  number,  by 
which  it  has  been  indicated.  When  the  train  reaches  the 
station  a  basket  containing  what  you  have  ordered  is 
handed  in  through  the  door  of  the  compartment,  and  the 
train  moves  on.  The  baskets  are  specially  made  for  the 
business,  and  contain  compartments  for  everything  needed 
in  the  meal,  together  with  the  inevitable  bottle  of  wine. 
You  eat  at  your  leisure,  and  at  a  stopping  place  an  hour 
further  on  the  basket  is  removed  and  sent  back  to  the 

place  whence  it  came.  The  plan  has  certain  merits,  and 
^9 


130  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

likewise  certain  defects ;  to  eat  without  hurr}'  and  without 
delay  is  certainly  a  great  advantage,  but  it  is  not  altogether 
comfortable  to  breakfast  or  dine  from  a  wicker  basket 
that  rests  on  your  knees,  and  it  frequently  happens  that 
the  pepper,  salt,  or  some  other  necessary  trifle,  has  been 
overlooked. 

A  private  lunch-basket  is  as  desirable  on  a  European 
railway  as  on  an  American  one,  and  may  be  stocked  to 
suit  the  owner's  taste.  On  a  long  journey  provide  your- 
self with  a  bottle  of  water,  as  there  is  no  water-cooler  on 
the  train,  and  you  might  suffer  from  thirst  without  the 
means  of  alleviating  it.  The  advocates  of  principles  op- 
posed to  the  total  abstinence  theories  of  Father  Mathew 
will  not  forget  their  pocket-flasks  with  stimulating  con- 
tents. 

Measures  of  distance  on  the  railways  in  the  British  Do- 
minions are  in  English  miles,  as  in  America.  In  France, 
Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain,  and  Belgium,  they  are  in  kilome- 
tres ;  in  Russia,  in  versts,  and  in  Germany  in  German 
miles.  The  kilometer  is  five-eights  of  an  English  mile, 
and  the  verst  very  nearly  the  same;  the  German  long 
mile  equals  five  and  three-fourths  English  miles,  and  the 
German  short  mile  is  about  three  and  a  half  English.  The 
rapid  spread  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  meas- 
ures will  probably  make  the  kilometer  the  unit  of  all  rail- 
way distances  on  the  Continent  in  the  next  decade.  Trains 
are  run  by  the  time  of  the  capitals  of  their  respective  coun- 
tries, without  regard  to  the  longitude,  and  you  will  often 
find  the  local  clocks  a  long  way  ahead  or  behind  those  of 
the  railway  station. 

On  arriving  at  a  continental  railway  station  there  will 
be  an  abundance  of  porters  to  carry  your  hand-baggage  to 
the  hotel  omnibusses  that  wait  outside  for  passengers. 
You  have  only  to  indicate  the  name  of  your  hotel  and  the 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  131 

porter  who  takes  charge  of  you  will  lead  the  way  to  its 
carriage.  You  hand  the  receipt  for  your  heavy  baggage 
to  the  porter,  after  depositing  the  light  impedimenta  in 
the  omnibus,  and  follow  him  to  the  salle  des  bagages,  where 
you  have  a  period  of  waiting,  more  or  less  tedious.  When 
the  trunks  are  ready  for  delivery  you  point  out  the  pieces 
which  the  porter  has  gathered  according  to  the  numbers 
on  them,  and  the  formalities  of  the  octroi  begin. 

The  octroi  is  a  continental  institution,  distinct  from  the 
custom-house,  but  greatly  resembling  it,  whereby  every  ar- 
ticle of  food  or  drink  entering  a  city  pays  a  tax.  The  offi- 
cers of  the  octroi  rarely  request  a  traveler  to  open  his 
trunks,  as  they  know  very  well  he  is  not  likely  to  trans- 
port mutton-chops,  cheese,  or  wine,  at  the  high  rates 
charged  for  railway  luggage.  But  they  are  sure  to  ask 
whether  you  have  anything  liable  to  the  octroi,  and  when 
you  answer  in  the  negative  you  may  depart.  The  porter 
mounts  your  impedimenta  to  the  top  of  the  omnibus,  and 
receives  his  fee — five  cents  for  each  heavy  parcel,  and 
five  or  ten  for  all  the  light  ones  together — you  take  your 
seat,  and  when  all  is  ready  you  rattle  away  to  the  hotel. 
There  are  plenty  of  cabs  and  two-horse  carriages  to  be 
had  at  the  stations,  if  you  do  not  wish  an  omnibus,  but 
they  are  more  troublesome  than  the  other  vehicles  in  con- 
sequence of  the  acquisitive  tendencies  of  the  drivers,  and 
the  stranger  ignorant  of  the  language  had  better  reject 
them.  In  some  cities,  notably  in  Berlin,  you  have  no 
choice  in  the  selection  of  your  carriage,  but  must  take  the 
first  that  is  offered.  As  the  drivers  come  to  the  station 
before  the  arrival  of  the  train  each  of  them  hands  to  an 
official  a  metal  check  bearing  his  number.  These  checks 
are  strung  on  a  cane  or  rod,  and  when  the  train  arrives 
the  rod  is  reversed,  and  the  numbers  come  off  in  the  or- 
der in  which  the  cabbies  presented  themselves.    The  sys- 


132  HOW  TO  tra\t:l. 

tern  is  a  fair  one  for  the  drivers,  but  bad  for  the  public,  as 
it  often  happens  that  a  party  of  three  or  four  persons  will 
find  themselves  assigned  to  a  two-seated  cab  ;  in  such  case 
they  must  keep  it,  and  if  they  cannot  stow  themselves  into 
it  somehow  they  can  take  an  additional  vehicle. 

In  most  of  the  large  cities  of  Europe  the  railway  com- 
panies have  an  omnibus  system  not  unlike  that  of  the  west- 
ern cities  of  the  United  States.  On  arriving  at  the  sta- 
tion you  can  engage  an  omnibus,  if  you  happen  to  be  three 
or  more,  and  it  is  as  much  under  your  control  as  a  private 
cab  would  be.  These  vehicles  are  of  all  sizes,  carrying 
froni  four  up  to  thirty-two  persons,  and  there  is  a  gal- 
lery- on  the  top  for  baggage.  You  can  telegraph  ahead 
if  you  want  to  make  sure  of  having  an  omnibus  at  the  sta- 
tion;  address  your  despatch  to  the  Chef  de  gar e,  and  say 
for  how  many  persons  you  desire  the  omnibus. 

These  omnibusses  are  specially  useful  for  family  and 
other  parties  of  three  or  more  who  are  about  leaving  a 
city  and  are  not  stopping  at  a  large  hotel.  Go  to  one  of 
the  company's  agencies  the  day  before,  and  say  by  what 
train  you  intend  to  leave  and  the  number  of  your  party, 
and  the  omnibus  will  be  at  your  door  at  the  proper  time. 
The  cost  of  a  vehicle  of  this  sort  is  less  than  for  a  carriage 
of  the  same  capacit}',  and  the  printed  tariff  leaves  no 
chance  for  a  mistaJie. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

STEAMBOAT  TRAVEL  IN  EUROPE. 

Compared  with  the  United  States  the  continent  of  Eu- 
rope has  a  small  amount  of  inland  navigation.  Russia 
contains  more  rivers  where  steamers  may  run  than  all 
the  rest  of  Europe,  and  until  within  a  few  years  her  steam- 
boat interest  was  greater  than  that  of  her  railways.  The 
Rhine  is  the  most  important  stream  of  Western  Europe, 
and  the  Danube  has  the  greatest  navigable  length  of  any 
river  outside  of  Russia.  The  Danube  has  a  serious  im- 
pediment at  the  Iron  Gates,  where  a  succession  of  rapids 
and  a  channel  full  of  rocks  prevent  .the  passage  of  boats. 
From  the  days  of  the  Romans  to  the  present  there  has 
been  talk  of  a  canal  around  the  Iron  Gates,  and  there  are 
the  remains  to-day  of  a  canal  that  was  begun  by  one  of  the 
Roman  emperors,  but  never  completed.  From  the  head 
of  navigation  at  Ulm  to  its  entrance  into  the  Black  Sea 
the  Danube  has  a  course  of  more  than  seventeen  hundred 
miles,  while  the  Rhine  can  only  claim  a  navigable  distance 
of  less  than  five  hundred.  The  Rhone  and  its  tributary, 
the  Saone,  are  classed  as  navigable  streams,  but  their  cur- 
rents are  so  swift  that  their  steamboat  interest  has  never 
been  an  important  one,  on  account  of  the  great  cost  of 
making  an  ascending  journey.  Many  of  the  smaller  rivers 
of  Europe  are  navigated  by  freight-boats  only ;  as  a  gen- 
eral statement  it  is  fair  to  say  that  the  inland  navigation 
available  to  the  tourist  is  comprised  in  the  Rhine  and 
Danube  rivers,  and  the  Swiss  and  Italian  lakes.     In  Rus- 

(133) 


134  now  TO  TRA^TLL. 

sia  he  will  find  the  Volga,  the  Don,  and  the  Dneiper 
rivers  worthy  of  attention,  and,  if  he  is  on  the  lookout  for 
more  streams,  he  may  venture  on  the  Vistula,  and  one  or 
two  others  of  lesser  consequence. 

All  the  Swiss  lakes  are  well  equipped  with  steamboats, 
and  the  service  is  prompt  enough  to  suit  the  most  exact- 
ing. On  the  lake  of  Geneva,  for  example,  there  are  half 
a  dozen  boats  each  way,  daily,  the  whole  length  of  the 
lake,  some  of  them  stopping  at  every  landing,  and  others 
making  only  two  or  three  halts.  The  boats  are  long  and 
narrow,  and  present  a  most  insignificant  appearance  when 
compared  with  the  steamers  of  the  Hudson  and  Missis- 
sippi ;  the  after  part  is  reserved  for  the  first-class  passen- 
gers, who  can  sit  under  an  awning  on  deck,  or  retire  to  a 
cabin  below.  The  second-class  is  forward,  and  in  fine 
weather  is  preferable  to  the  first,  since  the  latter  has  all 
the  benefit  of  the  smoke  and  cinders  as  they  blow  aft. 
The  boats  on  the  Swiss  lakes  are  for  day  service,  and  con- 
tain no  sleeping-cabins,  but  there  are  sofas  and  couches 
on  which  an  invalid  may  recline,  provided  the  craft  is  not 
too  much  crowded.  Meals  are  served  a  la  carte,  and  some- 
times at  a  fixed  price  ;  the  latter  are  not  to  be  recom- 
mended on  the  majority  of  the  boats,  though  they  are 
cheaper  than  meals  a  la  carte. 

Tickets  are  bought  at  the  clerk's  office,  and  the  traveler 
is  advised  to  visit  that  locality  and  settle  his  fare  as  soon 
as  he  goes  on  board.  No  receipts  are  given  for  baggage, 
and  if  there  is  an  excessive  amount  it  is  charged  for. 
There  is  an  attache  of  the  boat  who  looks  after  the  bag- 
gage— expecting  a  fee  as  a  matter  of  course — but  even 
with  his  watchfulness  it  behooves  the  stranger  to  keep  an 
eye  out  for  himself,  or  he  may  find  on  reaching  his  desti- 
nation that  his  trunk  has  gone  ashore  by  mistake  at  some 
other  landing.     In  selecting  a  seat  on  deck  take  one  on 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  135 

the  side  of  the  boat  opposite  the  sun,  so  at  to  avoid  the 
reflection  on  the  water,  and  whenever  you  leave  your  seat 
for  a  moment  put  a  satchel  or  some  other  article  in  it. 
Fashionable  travelers  on  the  Swiss  lakes  are  not  always 
respectful  of  the  rights  of  others,  and  will  drop  into  an 
eligible  locality  the  moment  it  is  vacated,  even  though 
they  know  your  absence  will  be  exceedingly  brief. 

The  description  of  the  Swiss  steamers  will  apply  in  gen- 
eral terms  to  those  of  the  Italian  lakes.  The  boats  are  for 
day  service  only,  and  their  models  are  very  nearly  those  of 
the  Swiss.  Most  of  the  attaches  of  the  boats,  especially 
the  waiters  in  the  cabin,  speak  French,  and  occasionally 
one  may  be  found  who  can  grapple  with  English.  Some 
of  the  boats  are  much  finer  than  others,  and  the  traveler 
will  do  well  to  make  enquiries  before  taking  passage. 
When  embarking  at  an  intermediate  landing  buy  a  ticket 
immediately,  or  you  may  be  charged  for  the  whole  dis- 
tance from  the  steamer's  starting  point.  This  custom  is 
not  altogether  unknown  in  other  countries ;  there  have 
even  been  occasions  when  it  cost  less  to  go  from  New 
York  to  Albany  than  to  a  point  half-way  between  those 
cities,  as  many  an  individual  can  testify. 

For  a  long  time  the  steamers  on  the  Rhine  were  of  the 
model  already  described,  and  the  accommodations  for  pas- 
sengers were  decidedly  limited.  But  with  the  increase  of 
travel  there  has  been  a  great  improvement,  and  now  there 
is  a  line  of  '*  American  steamboats  "  plying  the  river  so  fa- 
mous for  its  crumbling  castles  and  historic  associations. 
The  steamers  of  the  American  rivers  have  been  taken  as 
models  for  these  boats,  and  some  of  them  are  finely  fitted 
up  and  contain  many  features  of  real  comfort.  They  are 
fast  winning  the  favor  of  the  Germans,  and,  of  course,  are 
patronized  by  Americans  and  English  to  the  neglect  of  the 
old  boats.     The  traveler  should  make  sure  of  the  name 


136  nO^'   TO   TRAVEL. 

and  character  of  a  boat  before  buying  his  ticket  and  em- 
barking, or  he  may  find  himself  delegated  to  an  antiquated 
tub,  with  limited  accommodations  and  snail-like  speed, 
when  he  had  expected  to  be  on  a  floating  palace. 

The  tariff  of  fares  is  carefully  arranged,  and  is  posted 
at  the  window  of  each  ticket-office,  so  that  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  the  proper  sum  to  be  paid.  In  most  instances 
tickets  are  sold  at  the  offices  on  the  docks,  but  it  is  well 
not  to  purchase  at  an  intermediate  landing  until  the  boat 
is  in  sight ;  boats  are  liable  to  detention  from  various 
causes,  and,  if  a  tourist  is  in  a  hurry,  he  can  take  the  rail- 
way, which  follows  the  bank  of  the  Rhine,  or  very  near  it, 
all  the  way  from  Dusseldorf  to  Mayence. 

On  the  Rhine  steamers  meals  are  served  a  la  carte  and  at 
fLxed  prices,  but  there  has  been  a  tendency  of  late  years  to 
abolish  the  fixed-price  system  and  serve  only  a  la  carte. 
On  most  of  the  boats  there  is  a  table  d'hote  breakfast  or 
dinner  at  certain  hours,  and  a  notice  thereof  is  given  by 
the  ringing  of  a  bell.  The  waiters  are  fond  of  delaying 
the  collection  of  a  passenger's  bill  till  just  as  he  is  going 
on  shore  ;  by  so  doing  they  have  a  better  chance  of  im- 
posing on  him  than  when  his  memory  is  quite  fresh  as  to 
the  items  with  which  he  can  be  properly  charged. 

Baggage  is  not  checked  unless  an  extra  price  is  paid, 
but  there  is  a  free  allowance  of  one  hundred  pounds  for 
each  passenger.  The  charge  for  guaranteeing  the  safety 
of  baggage  varies  from  two  to  ten  cents  a  parcel,  accord- 
ing to  its  size  and  estimated  value ;  when  this  amount  is 
paid  the  company  is  responsible  for  loss,  and  will  indem- 
nify the  owner  according  to  a  fixed  tariff.  Everj-thing 
goes  by  tariff  on  the  Rhine,  except  the  fees  to  the  waiters, 
and  the  current  of  the  river,  and  the  wind. 

On  the  Upper  Danube,  from  Ulm  to  Linz,  and  from 
Linz  to  Vienna,  the  steamers  are  small  and  the  accommo- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  137 

dations  limited,  but  on  the  lower  part  of  the  stream  there 
is  a  different  state  of  affairs.  The  Danube  Steam  Navi- 
gation Company  has  some  large  boats  elegantly  fitted  up, 
and  though  they  are  deficient  in  several  things  they  remind 
the  American  of  home.  The  sleeping  accommodations  are 
rather  limited,  as  there  is  only  a  common  cabin  with  two 
or  three  tiers  of  berths,  unless  a  high  price  extra  is  paid 
for  a  private  room.  The  dining-saloon  is  airy  and  well 
lighted,  and  the  table  generally  excellent.  There  are  two, 
and  sometimes  three,  classes  of  steamers ;  the  fastest  is 
the  "Accelerated,"  which  makes  only  the  few  principal 
landings,  and  leaves  the  other  boats  to  perform  the 
details  of  the  service.  On  the  "  Accelerated "  boats 
meals  are  included  in  the  fare,  and  the  payment  for  them 
is  compulsory,  while  on  the  other  steamers  the  traveler 
pays  only  his  passage,  and  the  meals  are  an  extra  that  he 
may  take  or  leave  alone.  There  is  a  Hungarian  line  with 
its  headquarters  at  Pesth,  and  on  the  lower  part  of  the 
Danube  there  is  a  Turkish  line  that  has  periodical  fits  of 
suspension,  and  once  in  a  while  disappears  for  months  at 
a  time.  There  is  a  considerable  amount  of  travel  between 
Central  Europe  and  Constantinople  by  the  Danube  route ; 
a  traveler  from  Vienna  goes  as  far  as  Rustchuk  by  the 
river,  and  then  proceeds  (in  about  eight  hours)  to  Varna 
by  rail.  From  Varna  is  a  run  of  fourteen  hours  by  steam- 
ship through  the  Black  Sea,  and  down  the  Bosphorus,  till 
the  domes  of  Saint  Sophia's  Mosque  rise  to  view. 

The  steamers  on  the  Russian  inland  waters  leave  much 
to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  personal  comforts,  and  the 
most  that  can  be  said  of  them  is  that  they  are  better  than 
no  steamers  at  all.  On  some  of  the  rivers,  especially  on 
the  Volga,  there  are  some  boats  that  are  fairly  equipped, 
but  the  cooking  is  not  the  best  in  the  world,  and  the  pas- 
senger must  expect  to  do  a  good  deal  of  roughing  it.    The 


138  now   TO   TRAA'EL. 

first-class  travel  is  not  sufficient  to  pay  for  anything  like  a 
good  service  and  liberal  table,  and  if  one  is  on  the  hunt 
for  luxuries  he  will  keep  away  from  the  steamboat  service 
in  the  land  of  the  Czar. 

On  the  Siberian  lakes  and  rivers  there  is  a  steamboat 
service  of  very  limited  character.  The  great  rivers,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Amoor,  flow  into  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  consequently  their  only  business  is  a  local  one. 
There  are  only  two  or  three  steamers  on  the  Obi,  and  the 
same  number  on  the  Yenesei ;  the  commerce  of  the 
Amoor  maintains  from  twenty  to  twenty-five  steamboats, 
and  there  are  less  than  half  a  dozen  on  Lake  Baikal  and 
its  outlet,  the  Angara.  All  these  steamers  are  small, 
compared  wdth  American  boats,  and  their  accommoda- 
tions leave  much  to  be  desired.  The  first  cabin  is  usually 
an  open  room,  wdth  wide  sofas  running  all  around  it,  and 
on  these  sofas  the  traveler  makes  his  couch  with  his  own 
bed-clothing,  none  being  provided  by  the  boat.  The 
ticket  does  not  include  food,  and  the  table  is  supplied  by 
the  captain,  at  an  expense  of  about  a  dollar  a  day  for  each 
passenger.  A  traveler  across  Siberia  must  expect  hard 
fare  and  poor  accommodations,  and  find  the  compensation 
for  liis  privations  in  the  novel  scenes  the  journey  affords. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SEA-GOING  STEAMERS  IN  EUROPEAN 
WATERS. 

The  name  of  steam  lines  in  the  waters  adjacent  to  Eu- 
rope is  more  than  legion,  and  the  enumeration  of  them 
would  occupy  several  pages  of  this  volume.  Bradshaw's 
Continental  Railway  and  Steamboat  Guide  contains  a  list 
of  these  lines,  corrected  from  month  to  month,  according 
to  the  changes  that  have  occurred;  the  information  is 
conveyed  in  skeleton  form  something  like  the  following : 

"  Malta  to  Tripoli. — By  a  French  steamer,  three  times  a 
month.  Twenty-two  hours.  First-class  (including  food), 
^2,  8s." 

"  London  to  Honfleur. — The  Villa  de  Lisbon  and  the 
Villa  de  Paris  twice  a  week." 

All  the  great  steamship  companies  issue  pamphlets 
(gratuitously)  containing  the  information  needed  by  trav- 
elers. These  can  be  obtained  by  writing  to  the  office  of 
the  company,  or  by  personal  application,  and  it  is  advisa- 
ble for  a  traveler  who  expects  to  wander  away  from  terra 
finna  to  provide  himself  with  a  stock  of  these  documents. 
They  are  of  essential  advantage  in  laying  out  a  route,  and 
by  a  little  study  a  tourist  may  often  save  much  time  and 
money.     Take  the  following  as  an  illustration : — 

In  1873  t^6  writer  was  at  Vienna  to  attend  the  great  ex- 
hibition of  that  year.  At  the  close  of  the  affair  he  pro- 
jected a  journey  to  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Egypt,  and  per- 

(139) 


140  now   TO  TRA^'EL. 

suaded  a  friend  to  accompany  him ;  the  time  of  each  was 
limited,  and  it  was  desirable  to  make  the  trip  as  expedi- 
tiously as  possible  consistent  with  doing  it  thoroughly. 
Information  concerning  the  facilities  of  eastern  travel  was 
difficult  to  obtain,  and  it  was  concluded  to  postpone  final 
arrangements  until  reaching  Constantinople.  There  were 
three  companies  engaged  in  navigating  the  waters  of  the 
Levant,  but  no  one  of  them  would  give  the  least  informa- 
tion about  another.  "  You  can  buy  a  through  ticket  by 
our  line,"  said  the  agent  of  each,  "  and  then  you  may  stop 
over  at  each  port  till  the  next  ship  of  our  company  comes 
along."  This  seemed  fair  enough,  and  is  what  is  done  by 
the  majority  of  tourists,  but  it  was  thought  possible  to  im- 
prove on  the  plan. 

The  handbooks  of  the  companies,  French,  Austrian, 
and  Russian,  were  obtained,  and  with  these  books  before 
them  the  twain  sat  down  one  evening  in  the  hotel.  It  re- 
quired a  couple  of  hours  to  arrange  a  route,  but  by  dint  of 
hard  work  it  was  accomplished.  The  result  was  some- 
thing like  the  following  : — 

Leave  Constantinople  by  Austrian  Lloyd  steamer  of  the 
— th,  and  go  to  Syra,  one  of  the  Greek  Islands.  There 
connect  with  a  steamer  of  the  same  company  for  Athens. 

Spend  eight  days  in  and  around  Athens,  and  return  to 
Syra  by  an  Austrian  Lloyd  ship. 

Spend  a  day  at  Syra,  and  then  take  the  fortnightly 
French  steamer  for  Beyrout.  It  stops  two  days  at  Smyrna, 
ancT  part  of  a  day  at  each  of  half  a  dozen  points  including 
Rhodes,  Alexandretta,  and  Latakieh,  so  that  a  fair  view 
of  those  places  can  be  had. 

Eight  days  after  the  arrival  of  the  French  steamer  at 
Beyrout,  an  Austrian  one  will  touch  there.  This  time  will 
suffice  for  a  journey  to  Baalbeck,  and  Damascus,  and  the 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  141 

return  to  Beyrout,  so  as  to  catch  the  Austrian  steamer, 
and  proceed  to  Jaffa,  the  port  of  Jerusalem. 

Eleven  days  later  a  Russian  steamer  will  touch  at  Jaffa, 
on  her  way  to  Egypt.  Eleven  days  will  be  enough  for 
Jerusalem,  Bethlehem,  the  Dead  Sea,  and  the  river  Jor- 
dan, together  with  the  return  to  Jaffa,  to  catch  this  Russian 
steamer. 

The  plan  was  carried  out  to  the  letter.  There  was  plenty 
of  time  for  seeing  everything,  and  no  loss  in  waiting  for 
ships  in  the  different  ports,  save  in  a  single  instance  that 
had  no  serious  consequences.  The  scheme  had  a  decided 
advantage  over  the  ordinary  plan  of  buying  a  ticket  by  a 
single  line,  and  depending  only  on  the  ships  of  that  line. 
In  the  latter  instance  you  are  compelled  to  wait  for  a  fixed 
period,  while  by  traveling  independently,  and  knowing  the 
movements  of  all  the  ships  serving  the  ports  in  which  you 
are  interested,  there  is  often  a  material  saving  of  time. 

In  addition  to  the  regular  lines,  there  are  many  inde- 
pendent steamers  trading  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  through  the  north  seas,  and  by  scanning  the 
advertisements,  or  enquiring  at  the  steamship  offices,  the 
traveler  will  often  find  something  decidedly  to  his  advan- 
tage. For  example,  the  writer  was  once  in  Singapore,  at 
the  Straits  of  Malacca,  intending  to  go  to  Java.  There  is 
a  steamer  once  a  week  from  Singapore  to  Batavia,  the  cap- 
ital of  Java,  and  the  vessel  for  that  particular  week  was  a 
French  one  that  had  only  sixteen  berths  in  her  cabin ;  it 
was  whispered  around  the  hotel  that  she  would  be  terribly 
overcrowded,  as  she  had  nearly  fifty  passengers  booked, 
and  perhaps  more.  By  enquiring  at  the  shipping  oiifices 
it  was  ascertained  that  a  Dutch  steamer  had  been  at  Sin- 
gapore for  repair,  and  would  return  the  same  day  and  hour 
as  the  French  one,  but  she  had  not  been  advertised,  and 
nothing  would  have  been  known  of  her  in  the  ordinary 


112  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

v,a.y.  The  writer  and  his  friend  secured  passage  on  the 
Dutch  steamer,  and  had  a  pleasant  voyage  ;  she  had  the 
same  accommodations  as  the  French  ship,  and  only  seven 
persons  to  occupy  them,  while  the  latter  had  fifty-two ! 
They  were  packed  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  sardines 
in  a  can,  and  had  a  hard  time  of  it,  while  every  passenger 
on  the  Dutch  ship  had  a  room  to  himself,  and  all  the 
space  he  wanted  at  the  dinner  table. 

The  rules  and  regulations  on  the  steamers  in  and  around 
European  waters  vary  somewhat,  according  to  the  nation- 
alities of  the  companies.  The  American  traveler  will  run 
across  what  will  be  to  him  a  curious  custom,  on  some  of 
the  Mediterranean  lines  ;  the  supplying  of  food,  and  the 
service  of  the  table  generally  is  not  undertaken  by  the 
company,  but  is  leased  or  farmed  out,  the  same  as  a  hotel- 
keeper  in  New  York  leases  the  space  for  a  cigar  or  news- 
paper stand.  The  consequence  is  that  the  table  will  vary 
considerably  on  different  ships  of  the  same  company,  in 
proportion  as  the  steward  is  liberal  or  the  reverse.  It  also 
happens  frequently  that  the  captain  and  steward  are  not 
on  friendly  terms,  as  the  latter  does  not  run  the  table  in 
accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the  former ;  the  steward  is 
not  responsible  to  the  captain,  and  cannot  be  removed  by 
him,  and  as  long  as  the  contract  is  a  favorable  one  for  the 
company,  and  the  passengers  make  no  complaint,  the 
managers  of  the  concern  are  likely  to  uphold  the  steward 
as  against  the  captain.  On  most  of  the  French  and  Ital- 
ian lines  it  is  useless  to  make  any  complaint  to  the  cap- 
tain concerning  the  table,  and  the  steward  will  laugh  at 
you  for  so  doing.  But  if  you  write  your  objections  in  the 
official  complaint  book,  the  situation  is  changed  at  once. 

This  matter  requires  a  little  explanation.  On  all  Italian 
mail  steamers,  and  on  some  of  the  French  and  Austrian 
ones,  there  is  a  book  accessible   to  the  passengers  for 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  143 

the  express  purpose  of  receiving  their  complaints.  The 
pages  are  numbered  consecutively,  and  they  are  stamped 
by  the  chief  maritime  officer  of  the  port  where  the  ship  is 
registered,  and  at  the  completion  of  every  voyage  the  book 
goes  to  that  functionary  for  examination.  If  there  is  any 
complaint  it  is  investigated,  and  receives  the  proper  pun- 
ishment, at  least  such  is  the  general  belief.  The  service 
of  the  table  of  an  Italian  steamer  has  been  changed  from 
bad  to  good  by  the  mere  threat  of  writing  a  complaint,  and 
on  one  occasion,  when  the  matter  had  been  written  out, 
the  captain  and  officers  subsequently  begged  the  complain- 
ing passenger  to  add  a  postscript  to  the  effect  that  the 
cause  of  his  growl  had  been  removed,  and  he  was  willing 
to  withdraw  his  remarks.  They  had  bestirred  themselves 
to  make  things  pleasant,  and  so  he  complied  with  their 
request,  but  not  till  the  steamer  was  in  sight  of  port,  lest 
their  vigilance  might  relax.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  same 
system  is  not  in  vogue  on  some  of  the  trans-Atlantic 
steamers,  as  it  would  have  a  good  effect  now  and  then  on 
the  discipline  of  the  servants. 

One  great  inconvenience  of  travel  in  the  Mediterranean, 
and  also  at  many  ports  on  the  eastern  and  northern  coast 
of  the  Continent  of  Europe,  is  the  necessity  of  landing  or 
embarking  in  row-bfoats.  The  boats  are  rarely  supplied 
by  the  company  owning  the  steamers,  but  must  be  secured 
by  the  passenger,  and  as  the  boatmen  are  rapacious,  and 
more  or  less  dishonest  (generally  more),  the  negotiations 
are  not  pleasant.  Besides  it  is  no  joke  when  the  sea  is 
rough,  and  the  distance  long,  to  be  tossed  in  a  skiff  be- 
tween shore  and  steamer,  or  steamer  and  shore,  especially 
if  one  is  inclined  to  sea-sickness,  and  not  over-confident 
in  the  safety  of  the  craft  that  carries  him.  The  operation 
of  landing  or  embarking  when  the  waves  are  tossing,  has 
an  element  of  risk  about  it,  and  many  a  person  has  been 


144  now  TO   TRA^-EL. 

dropped  into  the  water  in  stepping  from  a  skiff  to  the 
gangway  stairs,  or  from  stairs  to  skiff.  The  steamship 
companies  shirk  the  responsibility  of  transfers  in  harbors 
where  they  connect  with  ships  of  their  own  lines  ;  in  the 
voyage  just  mentioned,  from  Constantinople  to  S)Ta,  and 
from  Syra  to  Athens,  the  tickets  were  purchased  through 
from  the  Golden  Horn  to  the  Piraeus,  but  on  reaching 
Syra  the  party  was  told  it  must  pay  its  own  expense  for 
transferring  to  the  branch  vessel  that  was  waiting  for 
them.  Gouty,  feeble,  and  timid  persons  are  warned  that 
a  tour  of  the  Mediterranean  is  not  to  be  undertaken  lightly, 
by  reason  of  this  impossibility  of  landing  directly  at  a 
dock.  Of  all  the  ports  of  the  Mediterranean  there  are  not 
half  a  dozen  where  the  steamers  lie  at  docks,  so  as  to  ren- 
der the  small  boat  unnecessary. 

For  general  advice  concerning  the  business  of  going 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships,  the  reader  is  referred  to  a  pre- 
vious section  of  this  volume.  The  precautions  against 
sea-sickness  are  as  good  (or  as  useless)  in  the  one  case  as 
the  other,  and  the  stewards  and  other  employes  of  the 
ship  are  much  alike,  whatever  their  nationality.  On  the 
French,  Italian,  and  Austrian  steamers,  the  chief  steward 
has  the  assignment  of  rooms  instead  of  the  purser ;  the 
latter  functionary  is  rarely  seen  by  the  passenger,  and  is 
supposed  to  be  busy  with  his  accounts  of  the  freight. 
Consequently  the  chief  steward  is  the  proper  personage 
to  evince  any  friendly  disposition  for,  and  he  is  generally 
open  to  arguments  of  a  financial  character.  A  five-franc 
piece  will  render  him  attentive,  for  ten  francs  he  is  obse- 
quious, and  for  twenty  he  may  possibly  harbor  the  pro- 
posal to  throw  the  captain  overboard,  and  put  you  in  chief 
command. 

For  parties  containing  ladies  it  is  well  to  remember  that 
English,  French,  or  Austrian  steamers  on  the  Mediterra 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  145 

nean  and  Black  Sea  lines,  are  preferable  to  other  nation- 
alities, as  they  generally  carry  stewardesses,  while  the 
others  do  not.  There  are  exceptions  to  this  rule  on  some 
of  the  Italian  ships  on  long  voyages,  but  they  are  decidedly 
rare.  In  the  matter  of  cleanliness,  the  various  nationali- 
ties may  be  ranged  in  the  following  order : — English, 
French,  Austrian,  Russian,  Italian,  Spanish,  Greek. 

The  Turkish  and  Egyptian  steamers  are  hardly  worth 
including  in  the  list  as  they  have  at  best  very  poor  accom- 
modations for  occidentals  of  the  sterner  sex,  while  they 
are  totally  unfit  for  ladies  to  travel  on. 

In  Northern  Europe  the  German,  Dutch,  Swedish,  Nor- 
wegian, and  Russian  ships  are  pretty  nearly  alike,  and  if 
there  is  any  difference  it  is  in  the  order  named.  All  the 
northern  nations  are  good  sailors,  and  the  captains  are 
competent  navigators  ;  the  Latin  races  are  less  reliable  in 
this  respect  than  the  Teutons  and  their  kindred,  and  the 
Orientals  are  the  worst  of  all.  Of  the  Latins  the  French 
are  the  best,  and  especially  those  from  Marseilles  and  its 
vicinity.  The  Italians  were  once  hardy  navigators,  and  the 
mariners  of  Genoa,  Venice,  and  other  maritime  cities  of 
Italy  have  a  noble  record ;  but  in  these  latter  days  they 
have  degenerated  very  seriously,  and  their  triumphs  on  the 
sea  are  not  of  great  renown.  The  best  of  Italian  seamen 
and  sailors  come  from  Genoa,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica, — the 
latter,  though  belonging  to  France,  may  be  classed  as 
Italian,  since  the  people  are  of  that  lineage  and  speak  the 
language  of  the  peninsula.  In  the  same  way  the  Austrian 
Lloyd  steamers  belong  properly  to  the  Italian  classifi- 
cation, since  Trieste,  the  headquarters  of  the  company,  is 
essentially  Italian,  and  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  captains 
and  other  officers  of  the  company  who  speak  no  other 
language,  although  German  is  the  tongue  of  the  country 
under  whose  flag  they  sail. 
10 


146  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

The  Spanish  sailors  are  a  sad  travesty  on  the  men  that 
four  hundred  years  ago  traversed  the  Atlantic  with 
Columbus,  and  during  the  three  following  centuries  made 
the  Spanish  name  respected  and  feared  on  the  seas  all 
over  the  globe.  A  Spanish  steamer  generally  abounds  in 
fleas  and  dirt,  and  the  cuisine  leaves  much  to  be  desired ; 
if  you  call  the  attention  of  the  steward  to  creeping  or 
jumping  things  in  the  berths  he  will  gravely  inform  you 
that  such  a  thing  was  never  known  before  on  the  ship 
and  you  must  have  brought  it  on  board  when  you 
embarked. 

The  Turk  is  too  much  a  fatalist  to  be  a  good  sailor. 
He  is  not  deficient  in  bravery  or  intelligence,  but  in  a 
place  of  peril  he  is  very  apt  to  fold  his  arms  and  say 
"Inshallah"  (God  wills  it),  and  let  events  shape  them- 
selves. Therefore  it  is  well  to  avoid  a  Turkish  or  Egyp- 
tian ship  whenever  another  nationality  can  be  found,  not 
only  on  the  score  of  cleanliness  already  mentioned,  but  on 
that  of  safety. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

SEA     AND    OCEAN    STEAMERS    IN    VARIOUS 
PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD. 

There  is  now  hardly  any  part  of  the  world  touched  by 
salt  water  that  cannot  be  reached  by  steamer  ;  wherever 
there  is  sufficient  commerce  to  give  promise  of  remunera- 
tion a  steam  line  is  sure  to  be  established.  Most  of  the 
European  governments  support  lines  of  steamers  by  sub- 
sidies in  the  shape  of  mail  contracts ;  in  this  way  they 
have  built  up  a  mercantile  marine,  comprising  thousands 
of  ships  that  plow  the  waves  in  all  directions  and  spread 
their  flags  wherever  the  breezes  blow.  Commerce  has 
been  developed  by  the  steamship,  and  one  after  another 
the  subsidized  lines  have  created  a  trade  that  has  enabled 
them  to  take  care  of  themselves,  or  will  thus  enable  them 
as  the  years  roll  on.  The  steamer  ts  one  of  the  links  to 
unite  the  nations,  and  the  familiar  intercourse  that  it  cre- 
ates is  a  sure  promotor  of  universal  peace. 

Of  transatlantic  lines  there  are  many ;  it  is  impossible  to 
give  the  exact  number  for  the  reason  that  new  ones  may 
be  created  or  old  ones  suspended  during  the  time  this 
volume  is  passing  through  the  press.  On  the  American 
coast  the  ports  of  Montreal,  Quebec,  Halifax,  Portland, 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Charleston, 
Savannah,  and  New  Orleans  are  served  by  transatlantic 
steam  lines  ;  New  York  alone  has  a  dozen  (roughly  stated) 
and  several  of  the  others  have  each  two  or  three.    The 

(147) 


148  now  TO  TRA\"EL. 

ports  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  are  thus  con- 
nected with  the  United  States  are  Liverpool,  London, 
Glasgow,  Belfast,  Bristol,  Hull,  Southampton,  Hamburg, 
Bremen,  Rotterdam,  Antwerp,  Havre,  and  Bordeaux. 
The  Liverpool  steamers  touch  at  Queenstown,  both  going 
and  returning,  so  that  the  latter  port  has  an  almost  daily 
communication  with  America  by  steam  without  herself 
owning  a  single  ship.  There  are  lines  between  New  York 
and  the  ports  of  the  Mediterranean,  with  a  service  more 
or  less  regular.  In  the  fruit  season  there  is  more  activity 
in  their  movements,  and  their  numbers  are  greater  than 
when  the  oranges  have  ceased  to  be  gathered  and  the 
lemon  has  been  squeezed.  Occasionally  there  is  a  steamer 
for  ports  on  the  Baltic,  and  not  many  years  ago  there  was 
a  line  to  Stettin  and  another  to  Amsterdam.  They  may 
be  revived  any  day,  and  new  lines  may  come  into  exist- 
ence while  yet  we  are  talking  about  them. 

Thus  far  there  are  no  regular  lines  of  steamers  between 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States  and  the  ports  of 
Asia.  One  of  the  New  York  and  Liverpool  companies 
has  a  line  to  Bombay  and  can  send  passengers  and  freight 
all  the  way  by  its  own  ships,  with  a  transfer  in  Liverpool. 
In  the  tea  season  steamers  come  from  China  to  New  York 
by  way  of  the  Suez  Canal,  bringing  cargoes  of  the  herb 
that  forms  our  breakfast  beverage,  but  they  do  not  return 
by  the  way  they  came  ;  from  China  to  New  York  they 
make  a  direct  voyage,  but  on  the  return  journey  to  the 
Land  of  the  Celestials  they  take  cargoes  for  Liverpool, 
London,  or  any  other  port  that  offers.  Most  of  these 
ships  are  specially  designed  for  freighting  purposes,  and 
their  passenger  accommodations  are  limited;  some  of 
them  are  noted  for  their  speed,  though  they  rarely  make 
as  rapid  progress  as  the  crack  vessels  of  the  transatlantic 
lines. 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  149 

The  great  majority  of  the  steam  lines  everywhere  are 
under  the  English  flag ;  of  the  transatlantic  companies 
only  one  is  American,  but  not  all  of  its  ships  are  of 
American  build.  Of  the  two  great  companies  that  con- 
nect Europe  with  the  far  East  one  is  French  and  the 
other  English ;  there  are  two  smaller  companies  connect- 
ing England  with  China,  both  of  them  English,  and  there 
are  occasional  in-egular  ships,  all  of  the  same  nationality. 
Without  attempting  statistical  exactness  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  of  the  ocean  steamers  that  link  the  different  parts  of 
the  world  together  at  least  nine  out  of  every  ten  are 
British. 

We  have  already  glanced  at  the  steamship  service 
in  waters  adjacent  to  Europe ;  let  us  now  look  away  to 
the  East. 

There  is  an  average  of  fully  four  steamers  a  week  from 
Europe  to  Alexandria,  Egypt,  and  in  the  winter  season 
the  number  is  greater.  The  lines  are  English,  French, 
Austrian,  and  Italian,  with  a  semi-monthly  Russian  and  an 
occasional  craft  of  some  other  nationality.  Some  of  these 
steamers  end  their  journey  at  Alexandria  and  return 
thence  to  Europe,  while  others  proceed  to  Asia  by  way  of 
the  Suez  Canal.  The  steamers  touching  at  Alexandria 
form  but  a  small  part  of  those  that  use  the  Suez  Canal ; 
the  traffic  through  that  artificial  highway  has  steadily 
increased,  from  year  to  year,  until  it  now  amounts  to  120 
ships  a  month,  or  four  per  day.  Nearly  all  the  craft  that 
pass  through  the  Canal  are  steamers,  as  it  has  not  been 
found  profitable  for  sailing  ships  to  make  the  voyage  up  or 
down  the  Red  Sea,  with  its  treacherous  winds  and  danger- 
ous navigation.  It  is  probable  that  within  the  next  decade 
the  number  of  steamers  passing  the  Canal  will  be  not  less 
than  200  per  month,  and  many  persons  familiar  with  the 
subject  predict  an  increase  still  greater. 


150  HOW  TO  TRA\'EL. 

From  Suez  the  steamers  follow  the  narrow  track  of  the 
Red  Sea,  where  the  sun  pours  down  its  pitiless  rays  and 
causes  the  panting  traveler  to  absorb  copiously  of  bever- 
ages that  cool  if  they  do  not  inebriate.  From  the  Straits 
of  Bab-el-Mandel  (Gate  of  Tears)  the  routes"  diverge  ;  one 
tends  northward  and  eastward  to  the  Persian  Gulf  and 
the  rivers  that  flow  into  it,  while  another  heads  almost 
due  east  to  Bombay.  The  route  of  the  Persian  Gulf  is 
served  by  an  English  company,  while  that  of  Bombay  can 
boast  of  three  or  four  English  lines,  an  Austrian  line,  and 
an  Italian  one,  not  to  mention  the  many  irregular  steamers 
on  the  hunt  for  chance  cargoes  and  passengers.  A  hun- 
dred miles  from  the  entrance  of  the  Red  Sea  is  the  ver- 
dureless  Rock  of  Aden,  where  British  enterprise  has 
established  a  port  and  coaling  station.  Most  of  the  regu- 
lar lines  make  a  halt  there,  and  it  has  been  found  in  prac- 
tice that  Aden  is  an  important  point  of  divergence.  Some 
of  the  English  companies  have  a  service  down  the  east 
coast  of  Africa  as  far  as  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  the 
French  have  a  line  to  Seychelles,  Mauritius,  and  Reunion. 

The  majority  of  the  steamers  going  east  from  Aden 
head  for  Pointe  de  Galle,  at  the  southern  extremity  of 
Ceylon.  Here  they  diverge  again,  some  going  to  Calcutta, 
some  to  Australia,  around  its  southern  coast,  a  few  to 
Burmah,  and  the  rest  to  Singapore,  at  the  Straits  of 
Malacca. 

From  Singapore  there  are  various  routes  for  the  ships 
that  have  followed  each  other  from  Pointe  de  Galle. 
Northward  go  some  to  the  capital  of  Siam,  less  northerly 
others  to  Cochin  China,  and  others  to  Hong  Kong, 
Shanghai,  Yokohama,  and  the  different  ports  of  the  Celes- 
tial Empire,  and  the  Land  of  the  Mikado.  Others  turn 
southward  from  Singapore  to  Java,  and  there  is  a  line  be- 
tween Singapore  and  Australia,  by  way  of  Java  and  Torres 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  151 

Straits,  following  the  northern  coast  of  the  great  island 
instead  of  its  southern  one.  Irregular  ships  go  to  Borneo 
and  around  Sumatra,  and  there  is  a  Spanish  line  that 
unites  Singapore  with  the  Phillipine  Islands. 

From  Japan  and  China  to  Europe  there  is  a  regular 
mail  service  each  way  once  a  week,  and  the  arrivals  and 
departures  can  be  relied  upon  very  nearly  like  those  of 
railway  trains.  One  week  it  is  performed  by  the  French 
steamers,  and  the  next  by  the  English,  and  so  it  goes  on, 
from  the  year's  beginning  to  the  year's  ending.  The 
smaller  lines  of  steamers  add  materially  to  the  opportuni- 
ties for  a  traveler  between  Europe  and  the  far  East,  and 
it  may  be  fairly  stated  that  at  all  times  of  the  year  there 
are  two  steamers  a  week  each  way,  while  during  the  tea 
season  there  are  double  that  number.  When  the  new 
crop  of  teas  comes  in  there  is  generally  a  race  between 
two  or  more  steamers  from  China  to  London  ;  the  short- 
est passage  thus  far  recorded  was  made  in  thirty-seven 
days  from  Shanghai  to  the  docks  at  London  by  one  of 
these  tea  steamers,  and  her  competitor  was  only  a  few 
hours  behind  her. 

An  English  company  skirts  the  coast  of  India  and  Cey- 
lon from  Bombay  to  Calcutta  with  weekly  steamers  each 
way ;  it  sends  its  ships  northward  from  Bombay  to  Kur- 
rachee,  Bushire,  and  up  the  Tigris  as  far  as  Bagdad,  and 
from  Calcutta  it  sends  them  to  Burmah,  the  Straits  of 
Malacca,  and  Singapore.  There  is  a  Chinese  line  from 
Rangoon  to  Singapore,  touching  the  principal  ports  of 
Burmah  and  the  Straits,  and  there  is  a  Chinese  line  and 
a  Siamese  one  also,  connecting  Singapore  with  Bangkok 
every  four  or  five  days.  The  Dutch  owners  of  Java  have 
a  line  from  Amsterdam  to  Batavia  twice  a  month  each 
way,  touching  Gibraltar,  Naples,  and  Suez,  and  they  have 
several  lines  around  the  Java  seas,  to  communicate  with 


152  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

the  Spice  Islands,  and  enable  them  to  keep  a  watchful  eye 
over  their  possessions.  About  once  a  month  they  send  a 
steamer  to  Melbourne  and  Sidney  by  way  of  Torres 
Straits,  and  they  send  a  ship  every  week  around  the  coast 
of  Sumatra.  The  coast  of  China  is  well  served  by  Eng- 
lish lines,  and  in  the  last  few  years  by  a  Chinese  one,  com- 
posed of  ships  purchased  of  foreigners.  In  the  same  way 
there  is  a  Japanese  company  that  navigates  the  waters 
around  the  Mikado's  Empire,  aud  also  connects  the  Japan- 
ese ports  wnth  Shanghai  and  Hong  Kong.  The  Yang-tse, 
the  great  river  of  China,  is  navigated  by  a  Chinese  com- 
pany and  an  English  one,  the  former  being  equipped 
with  steamers  built  in  the  United  States,  and  the  latter 
with  boats  constructed  in  England,  after  the  American 
model. 

The  ports  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand  are  connected 
by  local  lines,  and  there  are  two  or  more  lines  of  steamers 
that  ply  between  Australia  and  England  ;  from  England  to 
Australia  the  route  is  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  but  on 
the  return  voyage  the  ships  go  through  the  Suez  Canal,  in 
consequence  of  the  peculiar  course  of  the  trade-winds. 
On  their  outward  passage  they  touch  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  thus  come  in  competition  with  the  lines  that 
have  been  established  between  England  and  South  Africa. 
The  regular  service  is  weekly,  and  performed  by  two 
companies,  making  alternate  departures. 

Coming  back  to  Europe,  we  will  turn  our  eyes  toward 
the  west  once  more.  There  is  an  English  line  running  to 
the  West  Indies,  touching  the  principal  ports  as  far  as 
Aspinwall,  where  they  connect  with  the  steamers  of 
another  English  line  from  Panama  to  the  Straits  of  Ma- 
gellan. Three  French  lines  perform  nearly  a  similar  ser- 
vice, one  going  from  Saint  Nazaire  to  Aspinwall,  a  second 
from  Saint  Nazaire  to  Vera  Cruz,  and  a  third  from  Havre 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  15 

and  Bordeaux  to  Aspinwall.  All  these  lines  touch  at 
ports  on  the  way*,  and  one  of  them  has  a  branch  to  Cay- 
enne; the  departures  each  way  in  each  direction  are 
monthly,  while  that  of  the  English  one  is  fortnightly.. 
Another  French  line  goes  to  Brazil  and  La  Plata,  touch- 
ing at  the  French  colony  of  Senegal,  on  the  African  coast, 
and  there  are  two  Italian  lines  from  Naples  and  Genoa 
that  cover  the  same  route,  but  without  visiting  Senegal. 
There  are  two  other  French  lines  to  the  east  coast  of 
South  America,  and  two  or  three  English  ones,  so  that 
the  traveler  in  either  direction  will  have  plenty  of  ships  to 
choose  from.  Then  there  are  local  lines  all  along  the 
coast,  and  there  is  an  English  line  through  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  and  up  the  west  coast  of  South  America  as  far 
as  Callao,  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  one  already  men- 
tioned from  Panama  southward.  Besides  these  there  is 
a  Spanish  company  plying  between  Cadiz  and  Havana, 
and  a  Portuguese  one  from  Lisbon  to  Brazil. 

We  have  almost  girdled  the  world  in  our  observations  of 
steamships,  and  may  now  return  to  New  York.  The 
advertising  columns  of  the  leading  dailies  will  tell  all 
about  the  numerous  local  lines  that  skirt  our  coast  as  far 
South  as  Vera  Cruz  and  Aspinwall,  and  they  may  or  may 
not  tell  us  of  a  line  from  New  York  to  Rio  Janeiro  flying 
the  American  flag.  Several  lines  of  this  kind  have  been 
established,  but  they  have  never  been  of  long  duration,  as 
the  cost  of  maintaining  them  is  greater  than  the  receipts, 
and  the  United  States  government  refuses  to  adopt  the 
English  policy  of  sustaining  steam  lines  by  permanent 
mail  contracts.  As  this  page  is  being  written  such  a  line 
is  in  full  operation ;  its  permanency  is  to  be  most  devoutly 
hoped,  but  hopes  will  not  always  pay  the  expense  of  run- 
ning a  steamship.  An  English  line  connects  New  York 
with  Brazil,  but  does  it  in  a  roundabout  way ;  the  steamers 


154  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

go  from  England  to  Brazil,  carrying  cargoes  of  English 
manufactures,  thence  they  take  cargoes  of  coffee  and 
other  South  American  produce  to  New  York,  and  at  the 
latter  port  they  load  for  home  with  whatever  freight  is 
offering. 

Between  San  Francisco  and  Japan  and  China  there  are 
two  lines  of  steamers ;  both  are  under  American  man- 
agement, and  the  ships  of  one  are  of  American  build 
while  those  of  the  other  are  leased  from  English  owners. 
The  service  is  semi-monthly,  divided  between  the  two 
companies,  and  the  broad  Pacific  is  traversed  in  about 
twenty  days.  There  is  a  coasting  line  from  San  Francisco 
to  Panama,  and  there  are  two  coast  lines  going  north  to 
Oregon  and  British  Columbia.  An  American  line  runs 
from  San  Francisco  once  a  month  to  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  the  Feejees  to  New  Zealand,  and  there  con- 
nects with  the  local  steamers  to  Australia. 

Here  we  are  at  the  point  we  reached  by  steamer  from 
Europe,  and  may  pause  awhile  to  consider  other  matters. 
We  have  seen  the  North  Star  and  the  Southern  Cross, 
the  pine  and  palm  ;  blasts  from  high  latitudes  have  chilled 
our  limbs,  and  we  have  been  faint  and  suffering  under 
the  terrible  heat  of  the  equator.  But  our  tireless  steamer 
bears  us  on  and  on,  indifferent  whether  it  breathes  the 
airs  of  the  tropics  or  the  poles;  its  pulseless  limbs  are 
never  wearied  so  long  as  we  supply  its  digestive  and 
rcs])iratory  organs  with  their  needed  aliments.  The 
sfcamcr  has  destroyed  the  poetry  of  the  ocean,  but  it  has 
been  a  material  force  in  bringing  peace  on  earth  and  good 
vvill  to  men. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

BY  STAGE-COACH,  DILIGENCE,  AND  POST. 

The  world  moves  rapidly,  and  the  greater  part  of  its 
motion,  from  a  traveler's  point  of  view,  is  by  steam.  On 
land  and  on  sea  the  steam  engine  is  the  great  propelling 
force ;  the  railway  train  has  usurped  the  place  of  the 
stage-coach  and  diligence,  and  the  white  wings  of  the  sail- 
ing ship  have  been  shrouded  by  the  smoke  of  the  steamer's 
funnel.  The  sailing  ship  and  the  stage-coach  still  exist, 
but  their  importance  is  gone,  and,  from  present  indica- 
tions, there  is  no  likelihood  that  they  will  ever  return  to 
their  former  greatness.  On  a  few  routes  in  England 
coaching  has  been  revived,  but  only  as  an  amusement, 
and  there  is  no  prospect  that  it  will  gain  more  than  a 
slender  patronage.  The  sailing  ship  is  not  a  remunera- 
tive possession  in  competition  with  the  steamer,  and  the 
persons  who  take  passage  in  it  wherever  there  is  oppor- 
tunity for  the  more  expeditious  form  of  travel  are  few  and 
far  between. 

Before  the  general  adoption  of  the  railway  in  the  United 
States,  the  mail-coach  was  in  the  height  of  its  glory ;  all 
over  the  settled  portion  of  the  country  the  crack  of  the 
driver's  whip  resounded,  and  the  vehicle,  gaudy  with  paint, 
and  dusty  with  what  it  had  gathered  from  the  road,  was 
the  admiration  of  all  who  saw  it.  The  veterans  who 
guided  these  conveyances  were  famous  in  their  line  as 
victorious  genejals,  and  it  was  the  proud  ambition  of 
many  a  noble  youth  to  be  a  first-class  stage-driver  on  a 

(155) 


15G  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

great  route.  Early  in  the  century,  and  down  to  1S40,  the 
triumphs  of  these  jehus  were  mainly  in  the  Atlantic 
States  and  over  the  Alleghanies,  but  with  the  extension 
of  the  railway,  the  stage-coach  became  a  star  of  empire, 
and  took  its  course  westward.  The  last  great  route  of  the 
stage-coach  was  covered  by  the  completion  of  the  Pacific 
Railway,  and  now  its  services  are  confined  to  localities 
that  have  not  been  reached  by  the  iron  horse. 

The  Pacific  States  have  several  important  stage  lines  of 
a  local  character,  and  some  of  them  have  acquired  a  na- 
tional reputation.  Every  visitor  to  California  can  tell 
about  the  drive  to  the  Geysers,  or  the  road  to  the  Yosem- 
ite  Valley,  where  teams  of  six  and  eight  horses  are  driven 
at  full  speed  around  sharp  turns,  and  a  mishap  might  send 
coach  and  passengers  whirling  a  thousand  feet  down  the 
mountain  side.  Those  who  have  journeyed  north  from 
California  to  Oregon  are  familiar  with  the  mountain  ride 
of  three  hundred  miles  between  the  termini  of  the  rail- 
ways of  the  two  states,  and  there  are  several  interior 
places  of  importance  where  the  railway  has  not  yfei  pene- 
trated. The  newer  states  and  territories  have  a  consider- 
able number  of  stage  routes  in  operation,  and  in  the  sum- 
mer season  the  whip  of  the  stage-driver  is  heard  among 
the  mountains  of  the  eastern  states,  and  in  other  pleasure- 
resorts  where  the  denizen  of  the  city  seeks  coolness  and 
relaxation. 

For  traveling  by  stage-coach  in  America  the  prepara- 
tions are  not  numerous.  If  the  journey  is  to  be  one  of 
several  days  you  will  need  a  strong  constitution,  as  the 
luxuries  of  a  palace-car,  or  an  ocean  steamship,  are  not  to 
be  found  on  the  horse-propelled  vehicle.  Have  a  suit  of 
clothes  as  near  the  color  of  dust  as  possible,  and,  if  your 
sex  is  masculine,  cut  your  hair  and  beard  so  that  your 
head  will  resemble  that  of  a  pugilist,  or  the  back  of  a 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  157 

bull-dog.  C  J  very  little  baggage,  the  least  you  can  pos- 
sibly get  along  with,  and  don't  keep  it  where  it  will  get  in 
your  way.  Find  a  rear  seat  in  the  coach,  and,  if  in  winter, 
try  to  have  it  on  the  side  favored  by  the  sun.  Of  course 
you  will  try  for  a  corner  seat,  and,  if  you  get  it,  you  will 
be  all  right.  These  things  accomplished,  resign  yourself 
to  fate  and  the  care  of  the  driver. 

On  a  long  ride  by  stage-coach  you  will  naturally  wonder 
how  you  are  to  sleep.  For  the  first  twenty-four  hours  you 
have  a  hard  time  of  it,  and  your  first  night's  sleep  will  be 
principally  made  up  of  wakefulness.  But  Nature  will  as- 
sert herself ;  the  second  night  is  quite  comfortable,  while 
on  the  succeeding  nights  you  find  yourself  sleeping  as 
well  as  in  your  bed  at  home,  at  least  so  far  as  obtaining 
relief  from  weariness  is  concerned.  If  you  have  never 
tried  it  you  will  be  astonished  to  find  how  little  you  are 
fatigued  after  a  ride  of  five  or  ten  days. 

In  regions  where  there  are  highwaymen,  facetiously 
termed  "  road  agents  "  by  the  Californians,  carry  as  little 
money  as  possible,  and  leave  your  valuable  gold  watch  be- 
hind. You  may  have  a  revolver  if  you  like,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally of  very  little  use,  as  the  robbers  come  on  you  in 
such  numbers,  or  under  such  circumstances,  that  your 
weapons  cannot  be  employed.  Generally  the  first  intima- 
tion of  their  presence  is  the  protrusion  of  several  rifles  or 
pistols  into  the  windows  of  the  coach,  with  a  request,  more 
or  less  polite,  for  you  to  hand  over  your  valuables.  When 
you  have  no  alternative  but  to  hand  over,  do  so  with  alac- 
rity, and  lead  your  assailants  to  think  it  the  happiest  mo- 
ment of  your  life.  If  you  are  compelled,  as  often  hap- 
pens, to  step  outside  the  vehicle  and  hold  your  hands  in 
the  air  while  standing  in  line  with  the  other  passengers, 
try  and  hold  them  a  little  higher,  and  be  more  in  line,  than 
anybody  else.     Where  resistance  is  useless  do  not  make 


158  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

the  least  attempt  to  oppose  your  uninvited  interviewers, 
as  they  are  a  fastidious  set  of  gentlemen,  and  regard  with 
suspicion  any  movement  of  your  hand  towards  your  hip- 
pocket.  The  traveler  who  accepts  the  situation,  and  con- 
ducts himself  philosophically  under  such  circumstances, 
runs  very  little  risk  of  bodily  harm  ;  the  robbers  are  after 
his  valuables  and  not  his  life,  as  it  is  not  the  least  use  to 
them,  and  they  are  unwilling  to  take  it  except  in  self-de- 
fense, or  to  aid  their  search  for  his  personal  property. 

American  highwa}-men  have  not  yet  learned  the  art  of 
carrying  travelers  away  and  holding  them  for  ransom. 
This  accomplishment  is  of  Italian  origin,  and  flourishes  in 
Italy,  Sicily,  and  other  parts  of  Southern  Europe.  It 
was  introduced  into  Mexico  by  the  Italian  emigrants  who 
went  there  with  Maximilian,  and  prevails  to  some  extent 
in  South  America. 

Accidents  on  stage-coaches  are  much  more  rare  than 
one  might  expect  when  the  occasional  badness  of  the 
roads  and  the  apparently  reckless  driving  are  considered. 
The  fact  is  the  driving  is  more  reckless  in  appearance 
than  in  reality;  the  stage  companies  generally  employ 
men  who  understand  their  business,  though  they  may  not 
be  altogether  Chesterfieldian  in  their  manners.  If  you 
have  any  doubts  as  to  the  merits  of  the  man  who  is  to 
conduct  you  they  can  be  generally  settled  by  consulta- 
tion with  the  agents  of  the  company ;  the  story  they  tell 
you  may  not  be  true,  but  there  will  be  a  vast  amount  of 
comfort  in  it. 

A  great  many  stories,  mostly  apochryphal,  are  told  of 
stage  accidents  in  the  far  west.  One  is  to  the  effect  that 
a  driver  once  informed  a  timid  traveler  that  nobody  was 
ever  hurt  on  his  stage,  though  a  good  many  had  been 
killed.  The  stranger  naturally  asked  an  explanation,  and 
received  the  following : 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL.  159 

"There  used  to  be  a  good  many  accidents,"  said  he, 
"  and  lots  of  people  were  killed  or  wounded.  The  killed 
ones  didn't  make  any  fuss  ;  the  company  just  settled  with 
their  relatives,  and  that  was  the  end  of  it,  but  them  that 
was  hurt  made  a  good  deal  of  trouble.  They  were  always 
bringing  suits  for  damages  for  large  amounts,  and  gener- 
ally getting  'em,  and  so  I  made  up  my  mind  to  put  a  stop 
to  it.  When  we  have  an  accident  nowadays  I  just  take  a 
linch-pin  and  go  round  and  finish  up  all  the  wounded  ones, 
and  we  find  things  going  on  much  better." 

For  a  short  ride  in  good  weather  an  outside  seat  is  pre- 
ferable, especially  where  there  is  fine  scenery  along  the 
route.  The  place  by  the  driver  is  usually  the  post  of 
honor,  and  if  that  worthy  is  talkative,  as  he  generally  is, 
a  good  deal  of  information  can  be  gleaned  from  him.  He 
is  usually  unaffected  by  temperance  principles,  and  a  pull 
at  a  flask  will  serve  to  loosen  the  cords  of  his  tongue. 

The  American  coaches  are  of  varied  size  and  construc- 
tion, according  to  the  character  of  the  roads  where  they 
are  used.  The  old-fashioned  stage-coach  usually  had  a 
capacity  for  carrying  twenty-one  passengers,  twelve  inside 
and  nine  out,  and  was  suspended  on  leathern  braces.  The 
form  is  still  retained  in  the  so-called  Troy  coaches  and 
Concord  coaches,  but  in  many  vehicles  steel  springs  have 
taken  the  place  of  leather.  A  form  of  coach  largely  used 
in  the  far  west  is  the  "  mud-wagon,"  which  can  traverse 
routes  impassable  for  the  larger  and  heavier  carriage,  and 
is  specially  preferred  where  the  roads  are  bad.  On  some 
of  the  California  routes,  when  the  roads  are  moulting  in 
the  spring,  there  is  often  a  depth  of  several  inches  of  mud, 
and  only  the  lightest  vehicles  can  pass  through  it. 

The  diligence  in  Europe  corresponds  to  the  stage-coach 
in  America ;  like  the  latter  it  has  seen  its  sphere  dimin- 
ished by  the  construction  of  railways,  and  like  it,  too,  it 


IGO  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

reflects  the  institutions  of  the  countries  where  it  exists. 
On  the  American  coach  there  is  no  distinction ;  all  seats 
have  an  equal  price,  and  the  first-comer  has  the  choice. 
On  the  diligence  there  are  grades  and  classes,  and  the 
seats  are  numbered  and  reserved  like  those  of  a  theatre. 
The  most  costly  places  are  in  the  coupe,  which  is  beneath 
the  driver's  seat,  and  has  windows  in  front  above  the  level 
of  the  horses'  backs ;  then  comes  the  banquette,  which  is 
behind  the  driver,  and  is  an  excellent  spot  in  fine  weather, 
but  disagreeable  in  a  storm.  The  interieur,  as  its  names 
implies,  is  an  inside  affair,  and  affords  very  little  view  of 
the  road,  and  the  rotonde  is  at  the  back  of  the  banquette, 
and  cheapest  of  all,  as  it  is  also  the  poorest.  Particular 
places  may  be  secured  for  days  ahead ;  on  some  of  the 
Swiss  diligences  you  may  take  your  place  thirty  days  in 
advance  by  pa}-ment  at  the  office,  or  by  enclosing  the  price 
of  the  fare  with  your  card  and  a  memorandum  of  the  day 
and  hour  of  departure. 

Diligences  are  in  use  all  over  Europe  to  reach  towns  and 
villages  that  are  not  accessible  by  rail.  Their  fares  are 
regulated  by  government,  and  the  hours  of  departure  and 
arrival  may  be  relied  upon  as  exactly  as  those  of  railway 
trains.  At  present  the  greatest  country  of  diligences  is 
Switzerland ;  they  are  to  be  found  on  many  roads  of  that 
mountainous  region,  and  on  some  routes  they  have  a  heavy 
patronage.  Between  Geneva  and  Chamouny,  a  distance 
of  about  fift}'  miles,  there  are  sometimes  a  dozen  diligen- 
ces each  way  daily  in  summer,  all  of  them  filled  with  pas- 
sengers. The  diligences  on  this  route  are  a  solution  of 
the  problem,  often  declared  impossible  by  American  stage- 
drivers,  of  making  a  coach  where  all  the  seats  are  outside 
ones.  The  body  of  the  vehicle  contains  the  baggage,  and 
the  seats  are  in  rows  on  the  top,  over  which  an  awning  is 
spread.     The  only  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  putting  all  the 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  161 

seats  outside  is  in  the  coupe,  which  commands  a  higher 
price  than  the  banquette,  but  in  fair  weather  is  far  less  de- 
sirable. The  old-fashioned  diligence  with  coupe,  interieur, 
banquette,  and  rotonde,  is  not  much  used  on  pleasure- 
routes,  as  very  few  of  the  seats  are  desirable  for  tourists. 

For  a  long  journey  the  coupe  is  the  most  comfortable 
part  of  the  diligence ;  it  contains  three  and  sometimes 
four  seats,  but  one  or  two  persons  may  secure  it  by  pay- 
ing for  the  whole  space.  The  French  in  Algeria  have 
introduced  the  diligence,  and  the  writer  has  pleasant  recol- 
lections of  some  night  rides  in  a  capacious  coupi,  while 
journeying  with  a  friend  to  and  from  the  Desert  of 
Sahara.  The  coupe  or  any  other  part  of  the  vehicle,  once 
engaged,  it  cannot  be  invaded  by  any  other  person,  and 
not  even  a  Prince,  Grand  Duke,  or  any  other  titled  indi- 
vidual would  dream  of  taking  it  from  you. 

Posting  is  still  in  vogue  in  some  parts  of  Europe, 
especially  in  Russia.  Where  the  system  exists  it  is  under 
control  of  government,  and  the  supervision  is  usually 
pretty  strict.  One  may  travel  by  post  in  many  parts  of 
Switzerland ;  he  may  have  his  own  carriage  or  he  can 
hire  one  from  the  government  or  from  a  private  individ- 
ual. One  hour's  notice  is  required  for  hiring  a  convey- 
ance of  this  sort,  and  the  changes  at  the  relay  stations 
generally  take  from  1 5  to  30  minutes.  As  in  stage  coach- 
ing, or  any  other  travel  by  horse-power,  the  less  baggage 
you  have  the  better. 

The  comvtry  par  excellence  of  posting  is  the  Asiatic  por- 
tion of  Russia,  commonly  called  Siberia.  European  Rus- 
sia was  formerly  traversed  by  post  routes,  but  the  con- 
struction of  railways  has  caused  most  of  them  to  be  dis- 
continued. In  Siberia  there  are  as  yet  no  railways,  the 
country  is  large  and  the  roads  are  excellent.  All  these 
conditions  are  favorable  to  the   posting  system,  and  by 


163  HOW  TO  TRA^^EL. 

means  of  it  you  may  travel  from  the  Ural  mountains  to  the 
Sea  of  Okhotsk  without  a  break.  The  writer  once  jour- 
neyed by  post  from  the  head  of  navigation  on  the  Amoor 
River,  in  Siberia,  to  Nijne  Novgorod,  in  European  Russia, 
a  distance  of  nearly  five  thousand  miles.  Fourteen  hun- 
dred miles  of  this  was  accomplished  in  a  wheeled  car- 
riage (called  a  tarantass)  and  3,600  in  a  sleigh.  A  brief 
account  of  this  journey  will  describe  the  Russian  posting 
system. 

The  first  requisite  for  the  road  is  a  Padarcjnia,  or  road 
pass,  which  is  issued  by  the  government  authorities,  and 
without  it  no  one  can  pass  a  single  station  of  the  route  or 
obtain  horses.  The  document  states  the  name,  residence, 
and  destination  of  the  bearer,  the  number  of  horses  to 
which  he  is  entitled,  and  the  grade  of  his  pass.  There  are 
three  grades  of  road  passes,  the  first  for  government  cour- 
iers and  high  officials,  the  second  for  lesser  lights  in  the 
official  firmament,  or  for  distinguished  civilians,  and  the 
third  for  the  common  civilian.  Horses  are  kept  waiting 
for  the  first,  and  are  generally  forthcoming  for  the  second, 
but  the  holder  of  a  third  class  Padarojnia  will  often  wait 
for  hours  before  he  can  be  supplied,  unless  he  is  willing  to 
pay  an  extra  fee  to  the  station  master  for  expeditious 
service. 

Baggage  must  be  in  flat  and  broad  valises  of  soft 
leather,  and  all  hard  boxes  and  square  parcels  should  be 
thrown  away  at  the  start.  These  broad  valises,  or  chemi- 
dans,  are  spread  on  the  bottom  of  the  vehicle  ;  straw  or 
hay  is  laid  over  them  and  the  whole  is  covered  with  a 
heavy  coarse  quilt.  You  sit,  recline,  or  lie  at  full 
length  on  this  soft  flooring ;  no  seats  are  in  the  vehicle, 
and  one  very  soon  learns  that  he  is  far  better  off  without 
them.  A  couple  of  thick  and  strong  pillows  are  necessary 
to  hold  you  in  your  corner  and  save  you  from  the  frequent 
thumps  you  would  otherwise  receive. 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  1C3 

You  can  travel  in  the  vehicle  [telega)  belonging  to  the 
government  stations,  but  in  this  event  you  must  change  at 
every  station,  a  performance  that  speedily  becomes  a  nui- 
sance, especially  in  a  cold  night.  It  is  best  to  hire  a 
tarantass  to  be  taken  through,  or,  if  you  cannot  hire  one, 
you  had  better  purchase  it  outright  and  sell  for  what  you 
can  get  at  the  end  of  the  journey.  The  tarantass  is 
mounted  on  a  pair  of  stout  and  flexible  poles  that  serve  as 
springs,  and  sometimes  they  are  so  long  that  the  two  axles 
are  at  least  twelve  feet  apart.  It  has  a  hood  like  an  old- 
fashioned  chaise,  and  is  equipped  with  a  boot  and  an 
apron,  so  that  it  can  be  quite  shut  in  at  night  or  in  a 
storm. 

To  protect  him  from  the  cold  the  writer  had  a  suit  of 
thick  clothing,  covered  with  a  sheepskin  coat  that  but- 
toned tight  around  the  neck  and  descended  to  the  ankles. 
Over  this  he  had  a  deerskin  coat  with  the  hair  outside  ;  it 
reached  to  his  heels,  trailing  like  a  lady's  dress  when  he 
walked,  and  was  large  enough  inside  for  a  man  and  a  boy. 
The  collar  was  a  foot  wide,  and  the  sleeves  were  six  inches 
longer  than  the  wearer's  arms ;  they  were  very  inconven- 
ient when  he  wanted  to  pick  up  anything,  and  when  the 
collar  was  turned  up  and  brought  around  in  front  it  sug- 
gested the  idea  of  a  man  without  a  head.  For  wraps  he 
had  a  robe  made  of  nine  sheepskins,  sewed  together  and 
backed  with  heavy  felting ;  the  robe  was  about  three 
yards  square  and  as  impervious  to  cold  as  the  side  of  an 
ordinary  house.  Then  he  had  a  fur  cap  fitting  close  to 
the  head,  fur  gloves  for  his  hands,  and  a  mitten  of  sable 
skin  for  his  nose.  He  discarded  the  ordinary  boot  of 
civilization  and  wore,  over  his  ordinary  socks,  a  pair  of 
socks  of  squirrel  skin  with  the  fur  inside.  Over  these  he 
had  sheepskin  stockings  reaching  to  the  knees,  with  the 
wool  inside,  and  over  these  he  had  deerskin  boots  that 


164  now  TO  TRA^-EL. 

rose  to  the  bifurcation  of  his  legs,  and  were  held  in  place 
by  thongs.  Thus  equipped  one  may  bid  defiance  to  the 
low  temperature  of  a  winter  journey  across  Siberia. 

At  Irkutsk,  the  capital  of  Eastern  Siberia,  he  remained 
a  month,  till  the  snows  fell  and  the  winter  roads  were 
good.  Then  he  bought  a  sleigh  {kibitka),  constructed 
after  the  general  pattern  of  the  tarantass,  save  that  it  was 
on  runners  instead  of  wheels.  With  a  slight  expenditure 
for  repairs  he  carried  this  sleigh  through  to  Nijne  Nov- 
gorod (3,600  miles),  or  rather  was  carried  by  the  sleigh. 
A  Siberian  journey  may  begin  at  any  hour  of  the  day  the 
traveler  chooses,  and  is  continued  day  and  night  till  it 
closes.  The  usual  custom  is  to  order  the  post  horses  to 
be  brought  around  about  10  p.  m.  ;  the  day  and  evening 
have  been  spent  in  feasting  and  farewells,  and  towards 
midnight  the  departing  traveler  nestles  down  among  his 
garments  and  thick  wraps,  and  is  ready  to  go  to  sleep 
while  the  team  dashes  over  the  road  at  a  rattling  pace. 
Sometimes  he  is  escorted  to  the  first  station  by  a  party  of 
friends,  and  in  this  case  they  set  off  all  together  about  sun- 
set and  make  an  evening  of  it. 

The  horses  are  changed  at  distances  varying  from  ten  to 
twenty-five  miles;  they  are  paid  for  at  each  change, 
and  the  traveler  must  be  provided  with  a  bag  of  copper 
coin,  so  that  he  will  never  be  at  a  loss  to  make  out  the 
exact  amount  that  may  be  due.  The  driver  expects  a 
small  gratuity,  and  he  generally  earns  it  by  driving  at  a 
lively  gait ;  a  placard  is  hung  in  every  station,  showing  the 
distance  to  the  stations  on  each  side,  and  the  price  per 
horse,  so  that  the  best  intentions  of  the  station  master  to 
cheat  the  wa)-farer  are  frustrated.  Everything  included, 
cost  of  padarojnia,  hire  of  horses,  and  gratuities  to 
drivers,  the  expense  of  posting  in  Siberia  is  about  four 
cents  a  mile  ;    two  persons  may  occupy  a    kibitka,  and 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  165 

some  of  these  vehicles  will  hold  three,  and  the  number  of 
persons  makes  no  difference  in  the  cost  except  when  it  is 
so  large  as  to  call  for  more  horses. 

The  station  master  is  required  by  law  to  furnish  trav- 
elers with  hot  water  and  bread,  at  a  fixed  price,  and  he 
may  sell  anything  else  that  he  chooses.  Eggs  can  gener- 
ally be  had  at  the  stations,  but  no  other  article  of  food 
can  be  relied  on.  The  traveler  will  carry  his  own  tea, 
coffee,  brandy,  and  edibles  generally ;  in  winter  the  frost 
preserves  them  perfectly,  and  he  is  under  no  apprehen- 
sion that  his  perishable  provisions  will  perish.  Soup  is 
carried  in  cakes  like  small  bricks ;  roast  beef  resembles 
red  granite,  and  must  be  carved  with  an  axe.  There  is 
always  a  fire  in  the  travelers'  room  at  the  stations,  and  no 
difficulty  in  preparing  one's  dinner,  which  is  seasoned 
with  that  best  of  all  sauces,  a  keen  appetite. 

The  sleigh  glides  merrily  over  the  smooth  roads  and 
bounds  the  reverse  of  joyously  where  the  way  is  rough. 
As  long  as  the  harness  holds  together  and  the  team  is  in 
motion  the  driver  pays  no  attention  to  the  passengers,  but 
lets  them  rattle  about  as  they  will.  Occasionally  there  is 
a  spill,  but  it  rarely  amounts  to  anything  more  than  a  dis- 
agreeable shaking  up  and  a  scattering  of  one's  property 
along  the  road.  To  guard  against  a  mishap  of  this  sort  it 
is  customary  to  lash  the  baggage  into  its  place  by  passing 
a  strong  cord  over  it  a  half-dozen  times  or  more. 

On  and  on  you  go,  changing  horses  at  the  stations,  and 
alighting  two  or  three  times  a  day  for  meals.  In  the 
cities  and  large  towns  you  may  halt  a  day  or  two  for 
relief  from  the  monotony,  and  for  any  repairs  that  your 
sleigh  may  need.  The  road  is  long ;  there  are  209 
changes  of  horses  between  Irkutsk  and  Nijne  Novgorod,  and 
some  90  odd  between  the  head  of  the  Amoor  and  Irkutsk. 
It  gets  tiresome  after  a  while,  and  you  gladly  hear  the 


166  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

whistle  of  the  locomotive  which  tells  you  that  your  long 
ride  is  at  at  end. 

The  winter  is  by  far  the  best  season  of  the  year  for 
traversing  Siberia.  In  summer  the  roads  are  dusty,  the 
delays  at  the  river  crossings  are  frequently  long  and  vexa- 
tious, mosquitoes  and  flies  fill  the  air,  provisions  will  only 
keep  fresh  for  a  day  or  so,  and  the  tarantass  is  a  heavy 
vehicle  to  draw.  The  frost  seals  the  rivers,  shuts  up  the 
the  flies  and  mosquitoes,  lays  the  dust,  extinguishes  the 
malaria  of  the  marshes,  and  preserves  your  animal  fpod 
for  an  indefinite  period.  If  you  intend  taking  the  longest 
and  most  exhilarating  post  ride  in  the  world,  by  all  means 
make  up  your  mind  to  try  it  in  winter. 

The  whole  of  Asiatic  Russia  enjoys  the  benefits  of  the 
posting  system,  and  one  may  go  by  the  government  roads 
to  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  ocean  in  the  north,  or  to  the 
country  of  the  Kirghes  and  Turcomans  on  the  south. 
Whenever  a  new  region  in  Central  Asia  is  conquered  and 
brought  under  the  Russian  rule,  a  post  route  is  opened 
and  stations  are  established,  so  as  to  afford  certain  and 
quick  communication.  The  post  route  is  to  Russia  what 
the  railway  is  to  the  United  States  in  developing  new 
territory,  and  carrying  to  it  the  blessings,  as  well  as  the 
curses,  of  civilization. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

TRAVELING  WITH  CAMELS  AND  ELEPHANTS. 

Next  to  the  horse  the  camel  is  the  beast  of  burden 
available  for  travelers,  and  in  some  parts  of  the  world  he 
is  a  most  important  animal.  He  has  long  been  known  as 
"  The  Ship  of  the  Desert,"  and  without  his  aid  the  sandy 
wastes  of  Asia  and  Africa  would  be  well-nigh  impassable. 

The  regions  where  the  camel  is  in  use  are  practically 
comprised  in  Persia,  Tartary,  Arabia,  Northern  Africa,  and 
portions  of  China  and  India.  There  are  several  varieties 
of  camels  that  differ  from  each  other,  like  the  various 
kinds  of  horses  ;  the  finest  and  best  of  the  race  is  the  one 
called  the  dromedary,  which  bears  the  same  relation  to 
the  ordinary  camel  as  the  carefully-bred  trotter  does  to 
the  common  horse.  The  pace  of  the  common  camel  is 
about  three  miles  an  hour,  and  his  day's  journey  is  from 
twenty  to  thirty  miles.  At  this  rate  he  can  carry  from, 
five  hundred  to  nine  hundred  pounds  of  burden,  and  for  a 
short  journey  a  strong  camel  can  be  loaded  with  one  thou- 
sand pounds.  The  swift  camel  or  saddle  dromedary  has 
been  known  to  make  ten  miles  an  hour,  though  his  ordinary 
pace  will  not  exceed  seven  or  eight.  He  will  travel  fifty 
miles  a  day  for  days  together,  and,  on  emergencies,  he  will 
accomplish  one  hundred  miles  or  more  without  resting. 
Mohammed  Ali  Pasha,  who  ruled  over  Egypt  in  the  early 
part  of  this  century,  once  rode  on  a  dromedary  from  Suez 
to  Cairo,  eighty-two  miles,  in  less  than  ten  hours.  He  made 
only  a  single  halt  of  about  half  an  hour  ;  the  driver  of  the 

(167) 


168  HOW  TO  TRA^'EL. 

beast  ran  at  his  side  for  the  entire  distance,  and  died  the 
next  day  from  the  exertion. 

The  stomach  of  the  camel  is  so  arranged  that  it  can 
hold  water  enough  for  a  week's  supply ;  the  animal  is  thus 
enabled  to  traverse  the  desert  where  the  wells  are  often 
several  days'  journey  from  each  other.  His  foot  is  a 
spongy  mass  that  flattens  to  a  great  breadth  when  placed 
on  the  ground,  and  enables  him  to  walk  on  the  pelding 
sand,  and  his  hump  is  a  store  of  fat  that  sustains  him  in 
the  privations  of  the  desert.  Attempts  have  been  made 
to  employ  the  camel  on  the  arid  wastes  of  the  south- 
western parts  of  the  United  States,  but  none  of  them 
have  been  more  than  experimentally  successful. 

The  motion  of  a  camel  is  far  from  agreeable  to  the 
novice ;  even  the  slow  walk  is  unpleasant  and  wearying, 
and  when  it  comes  to  the  trotting  camel,  or  swift  drome- 
dary, the  exercise  is  like  being  tossed  violently  in  a  wooden 
blanket,  and  allowed  to  fall  heavily  every  other  second. 
The  rider's  head  and  shoulders  are  thrown  forward  and 
then  back  with  a  jerk,  and  as  the  jerks  average  about 
thirty-eight  to  the  minute  each  way,  they  become  monoto- 
nous after  a  while.  The  novice  who  reads  this  book  is 
•advised  not  to  trj'  a  trotting  camel  till  he  has  become 
thoroughly  accustomed  to  the  dignified  walker  ;  the  latter 
will  give  him  all  the  amusement  he  wants  for  a  week  or 
so,  and  perhaps  longer ;  and  if  he  accomplishes  twenty- 
five  miles  a  day  on  his  humpbacked  steed  he  should  be 
satisfied.  The  first  day  he  will  feel  somewhat  shaken  up, 
but  unable  to  locate  his  pains ;  the  next  day  he  feels  as 
though  his  backbone  had  been  removed,  and  the  third  day 
he  finds  it  has  returned,  but  is  converted  into  glass.  After 
that  his  pains  will  subside,  and  a  week  will  find  him  ac- 
climated. 

The  riding  saddle  for  a  camel  is  a  sort  of  dish  with  a 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  HJU 

pommel,  and  the  practiced  rider  crosses  his  legs  around 
this  pommel,  and  thus  holds  himself  in  place.  Stirrups 
are  sometimes  added,  but  they  do  not  properly  belong  to 
the  equipment  of  a  camel.  A  very  good  seat  may  be 
arranged  by  taking  the  common  pack-saddle,  slinging  the 
saddle-bags  across,  and  then  piling  on  rugs  and  wraps 
enough  to  form  a  soft  and  wide  seat.  The  whole  should 
be  firmly  lashed  to  prevent  slipping ;  stirrups  may  be 
added  either  at  the  pommel  or  at  the  side,  and  when  thus 
arranged  the  rider  may  mount  to  his  place.  He  may  I'ide 
in  any  way  he  likes,  either  astride  or  sidewise,  and  he 
soon  finds  that  he  can  change  his  position  without  difficulty 
or  danger. 

A  gentleman  who  has  had  much  experience  in  camel 
riding  gives  the  following  directions  : — 

"  Place  a  light  box  or  package  on  either  side  of  the 
pack-saddle,  sufficiently  closely  corded  to  form  one  wide 
horizontal  surface.  On  this  lay  a  carpet,  mattress, 
blanket,  and  wraps,  thus  forming  a  delicious  seat  or  couch, 
and  giving  the  option  of  lying  down  or  sitting,  either  side- 
saddle or  cross-legged.  Sheets,  pillow,  rug,  etc.,  may 
be  rolled  up  and  strapped  to  the  back  of  the  saddle,  and 
form  an  excellent  support  to  the  back  or  elbow.  The " 
object  of  the  light  box  or  package  is  to  a  certain  extent 
answered  by  a  pair  of  well-stuffed  saddle-bags." 

The  traveler  on  a  camel  in  the  hot  regions  of  Africa 
should  have  a  good  supply  of  white  clothing  and  a  pith 
hat,  or  sola  topee,  to  protect  his  head  from  the  broiling 
sun.  But  he  should  always  have  a  suit  of  tolerably  thick 
clothing,  for  the  night-air  is  cold,  even  in  the  tropics,  and 
a  heavy  overcoat  will  often  prove  useful.  Water  is  car- 
ried in  barrels,  or  goat-skins  ;  of  late  years  boxes  of  gal- 
vanized iron  have  been  used  very  successfully,  the  first 
man  to  try  them  being  Dr.  Rohlfs,  the  celebrated  explorer 


170  now  TO  TR.U-EL, 

of  Northern  Africa.  In  addition  to  this,  every  man  car- 
ries a  small  water-skin,  called  a  zcmzemecyah,  at  his  sad- 
dle-bow, for  use  during  the  day,  and  as  a  reserve  in  case 
he  strays  from  camp. 

The  outfit  for  a  journey  by  camel  will  depend  much  on 
the  locality  to  be  visited,  and  the  time  consumed,  and 
consequently  no  general  rules  for  it  can  be  laid  down. 
Whether  it  be  the  African  deserts  of  Lybia  or  Sahara,  or 
the  desert  of  Arabia,  the  traveler  must  carry  the  most  of 
his  provisions  with  him,  and  be  prepared  to  rough  it  a 
good  deal.  With  an  enormous  train  of  camels  it  is  possi- 
ble to  transport  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life,  including 
spacious  tents,  carpets,  bedsteads,  and  other  furniture,  but 
if  you  cannot  be  comfortable  without  all  these  things  you 
had  better  stay  at  home.  The  usual  allowance  for  trav- 
elers in  the  Arabian  desert  is  a  tent  for  every  four  or  five 
persons,  and  an  extra  tent  for  a  dining  and  sitting-room. 
The  expense  varies  from  five  to  eight  dollars  a  day  /or 
each  person,  and  depends  a  good  deal  on  the  size  of  the 
party  and  the  style  of  traveling.  At  all  the  starting-points 
it  is  easy  to  find  a  dragoman  who  will  undertake  the  whole 
business,  but  his  recommendations  should  be  critically  ex- 
amined, and  the  contract  drawn  with  judicious  care.  The 
dragoman  is  too  often  a  slippery  party,  who  seeks  to  en- 
rich himself  at  the  expense  of  his  employer.  A  good  one 
is  a  treasure,  but  a  bad  one  is  a  source  of  never-ending 
trouble. 

In  Northern  China  the  camel  is  largely  used,  especially 
on  the  desert  of  Gobi,  Travelers  between  Pekin  and 
Kiachta,  on  the  frontier  of  Siberia,  generally  ride  in  camel 
carts,  or  at  all  events  have  them  in  reserve,  while  they 
promenade  on  their  saddle  ponies.  Formerly  all  the  tea 
that  entered  Russia  was  imported  overland,  and  in  the  tea 
season  long  files  of  camels,  laden  with  the  delicious  herb, 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  171 

could  be  seen  entering  Kiachta  at  any  hour  of' the  day. 
Since  the  opening  of  the  Russian  ports  to  importations 
by  sea  the  camel  traffic  has  largely  diminished,  but  there 
are  still  a  goodly  number  of  these  patient  animals  trav- 
ersing the  desert  of  Gobi,  and  the  regions  to  the  west  of 
it.  The  camel  is  an  important  reliance  of  Russia  in  her 
military  conquests  in  Central  Asia,  and  the  failure  of  an 
expedition  is  often  chargeable  to  him. 

For  riding  purposes  the  elephant  is  preferable  to  the 
camel,  as  the  motion  is  far  less  disagreeable,  and  the  broad 
back  of  the  beast  affords  a  comfortable  seat.  The  driver 
sits  on  the  neck  of  his  steed  and  manages  him  with  an  iron 
goad  that  has  a  hook  at  the  end,  as  well  as  a  straight 
point.  The  traveler  has  nothing  to  do  with  directing  the 
elephant  beyond  giving  his  instructions  to  the  driver  be- 
fore starting ;  if  the  ground  is  wooded  he  must  keep  a 
sharp  watch  for  the  limbs  of  the  trees,  or  run  the  risk 
of  being  brushed  from  his  place.  The  writer's  first  ex- 
perience with  elephant  riding  was  at  Benares,  in  India ; 
a  magnificent  elephant,  belonging  to  a  native  prince,  was 
furnished  to  him  for  an  excursion,  and  he  returned  from 
the  adventure  without  any  of  the  disagreeable  aches  that 
accompanied  his  novitiate  with  the  camel.  The  howdah, 
or  saddle,  was  like  a  small  carriage,  capable  of  seating 
four  persons ;  it  was  held  in  place  by  several  thongs  and 
cords,  and  was  reached  by  means  of  a  ladder  placed 
against  the  animal's  side.  A  more  primitive  equipment  is 
a  pad-saddle,  which  is  described  by  its  name  ;  it  is  simply 
a  broad  pad,  like  a  well-stuffed  mattress,  and  is  held  in 
position  the  same  as  the  howdah.  An  elephant  can  easily 
carry  all  the  passengers  that  can  cling  to  him,  as  his  ordi- 
nary load  is  anything  less  than  two  thousand  pounds. 

When  troops  are  on  the  march  they  have  a  form  of  sad- 
dle that  will  carry  eight  men,  and  some  of  the  largest  will 


173  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

hold  ten.'  It  consists  of  two  benches  or  settees  placed 
back  to  back  and  resting  on  a  small  platform  that  gives 
support  to  the  feet.  In  riding  in  this  way  the  traveler 
looks  to  one  side,  the  same  as  in  an  Irish  jaunting  car, 
and  if  he  wants  to  see  anything  on  the  opposite  side  he 
must  give  his  neck  a  twist,  more  or  less  inconvenient. 

There  are  two  species  of  elephant,  the  African  and  the 
Asiatic ;  the  former  is  much  the  more  fierce  and  not  often 
domesticated,  though  it  is  pretty  clearly  demonstrated 
that  the  first  elephants  ever  tamed  and  used  by  man  were 
from  Africa.  The  Asiatic  elephant  is  employed  in  Siam, 
Ceylon,  Burmah,  and  India  as  a  beast  of  burden,  and  in  a 
few  other  countries.  The  traveler  in  India  will  often  see 
dozens  of  these  beasts  at  the  railway  stations  waiting  to 
receive  their  burdens  of  bales  and  boxes,  and  sometimes 
he  sees  them  at  work  on  the  roads.  The  great  expense 
of  feeding  them  makes  them  an  expensive  article  of  lux- 
ury, and  it  is  not  likely  they  will  ever  come  into  general 
use.  A  good  elephant  will  carry  a  ton  of  cargo  and 
march  fifty  miles  a  day  over  ordinary  roads ;  he  gets 
along  very  well  on  level  ground,  but  sometimes  topples 
and  falls  backward  when  trying  to  climb  a  steep  hill  with 
a  burden  on  his  back. 

One  caution  the  elephant  rider  should  bear  in  mind.  It 
is  a  peculiar  trait  of  this  animal  to  take  fright  from  slight 
and  often  absurd  causes,  and  sometimes  he  gets  beyond 
the  control  of  his  driver.  In  such  a  case  do  not  seek 
safety  by  slipping  or  jumping  from  his  back ;  you  may 
escape  injury  from  the  fall  but  will  be  in  danger  of  being 
trampled  to  death  by  the  elephant  or  pierced  by  his  tusks. 
Even  while  he  is  going  quietly  along  the  road  you  should 
be  careful  not  to  fall  by  accident  to  the  ground,  or 
attempt  to  jump  there,  as  he  is  very  apt  to  turn  and 
attack  you. 


HOW  TO   TRA^^L.  173 

The  most  docile  elephants  are  nearly  as  dangerous  in 
this  respect  as  the  ferocious  ones ;  while  the  writer  was  in 
India  an  engineer  officer  was  one  day  riding  a  favorite 
elephant  that  had  been  in  his  possession  for  years  and 
was  much  attached  to  him.  By  some  accident  he  slipped 
from  the  saddle  and  fell  to  the  ground;  the  elephant 
immediately  turned,  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the 
driver  to  stop  him,  pierced  his  master  with  his  tusks,  kill- 
ing him  almost  instantly. 

Another  peculiarity  of  the  elephant  is  to  become  sud- 
denly insane  from  no  apparent  cause.  The  animal  may  be 
walking  quietly  along  the  road,  or  standing  in  his  stable, 
when,  without  a  moment's  warning,  he  raises  his  trunk  in 
the  air,  bellows  loudly,  and  rushes  upon  the  nearest  man 
or  beast  with  an  effort  to  annihilate  him.  The  paroxysm 
may  be  over  in  a  few  minutes  or  it  may  last  for  hours  ; 
while  it  continues,  the  beast  is  full  of  malice,  and  it  is 
dangerous  in  the  extreme  to  approach  him. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

TRAVELING  WITH  REINDEER  AND  DOGS. 

Comparatively  few  of  the  readers  of  this  volume  are 
likely  to  have  any  practical  use  for  information  concern- 
ing the  modes  of  traveling  with  reindeer  and  dogs,  and 
therefore  the  subject  will  be  treated  very  briefly.  The 
use  of  these  animals  for  riding  or  driving  purposes  is  con- 
fined to  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  regions  adjacent  to  it, 
rarely  going  below  the  fiftieth  parallel  of  north  latitude. 

In  Lapland,  and  in  some  portions  of  Northern  Siberia, 
the  reindeer  is  employed  to  the  exclusion  of  the  dog, 
while  in  Greenland  and  that  part  of  North  America  bor- 
dering the  Arctic  Ocean  the  dog  is  the  only  beast  of  bur- 
den. The  American  and  Greenland  dogs  are  of  the 
variety  known  as  Esquimaux,  and  closely  allied  to  the 
familiar  and  treacherous  Spitz.  In  Kamchatka  and 
Northeastern  Siberia  both  dogs  and  reindeer  are  em- 
ployed for  drawing  sledges,  and  the  reindeer  for  a  saddle 
animal.  The  Kamchadale  dog  is  quite  like  the  Esqui- 
maux in  appearance,  character,  qualities,  and  uses,  and 
the  description  of  one  will  answer  in  general  terms  for 
both. 

The  sledge  used  for  the  reindeer  in  Lapland  is  a  sort  of 
box,  not  unlike  a  coffin  in  general  appearance,  and  it  has 
the  faculty  of  overturning  very  easily.  The  animal  is 
harnessed  with  a  broad  collar  of  deerskin,  and  a  stout 
thong  extends  between  his  legs  to  the  front  of  the  sledge. 

(174) 


now   TO   TRAVEL.  175 

A  single  rein  is  fastened  to  one  of  his  horns,  and  by 
means  of  this  he  is  guided.  Sometimes  there  are  two 
thongs  or  traces,  one  on  each  side  of  the  deer,  and  when 
two  deer  are  employed  together  they  are  harnessed  side 
by  side.  In  that  case  a  rein  is  fastened  to  the  horn  of 
each. 

In  Kamchatka  and  Siberia  the  sledge  is  higher  and 
broader  than  that  of  Lapland ;  the  latter  has  frequently 
but  a  single  runner,  like  a  broad  plank  turned  up  at  the 
ends,  while  the  former  has  a  pair  of  runners,  each  about 
six  inches  wide.  Generally  the  occupant  of  the  sledge  is 
his  own  driver,  especially  if  he  has  but  a  single  deer,  but 
with  a  fine  turnout  of  a  pair  of  trotters  the  driver  sits  on 
the  forward  part  of  the  vehicle  while  the  passenger  is 
wrapped  in  his  furs  and  takes  things  comfortably.  The 
ordinary  deer  is  not  a  fast  animal  and  his  speed  does  not 
exceed  five  or  six  miles  an  hour,  but  the  fancy  team  is 
quite  another  thing.  It  has  been  known  to  make  fifteen 
or  sixteen  miles  an  hour  and  to  travel  a  hundred  and  forty 
miles  without  any  rest  beyond  a  few  brief  halts.  A  ride 
behind  a  fast  reindeer  has  the  disadvantage  that  the 
driver  and  passenger  are  pelted  with  balls  of  snow, 
thrown  by  the  animals  hoofs,  unless  the  weather  is  so  cold 
that  the  snow  will  not  unite. 

In  Northeastern  Siberia  the  reindeer  is  much  oftener 
used  under  the  saddle  than  with  a  sledge.  The  saddle  is 
placed  directly  over  the  animal's  withers,  as  the  back  is  not 
strong,  and  will  give  way  under  the  weight  of  an  ordinary 
man  ;  it  is  nothing  but  a  flat  pad  without  stirrups,  and  the 
rider,  who  is  passing  his  novitiate,  has  no  easy  task.  The 
first  time  he  gets  on  he  generally  tumbles  off  on  the  other 
side  at  once,  and  even  after  he  has  succeeded  in  balanc- 
ing himself  the  first  step  of  the  deer  is  pretty  sure  to  send 
him  to  the  ground.      It  is  customary  to  carry  a  long  stick 


176  now  TO   TRAVEL. 

with  which  to  preserve  the  balance,  and  some  riders  pro- 
vide themselves  with  two  sticks,  one  on  each  side.  The 
stick  is  absolutely  necessary  in  mounting,  as  the  deer  is 
liable  to  be  thrown  down  if  mounted  as  one  would  mount 
a  horse. 

A  hundred  pounds  is  considered  a  sufficient  load  for  an 
ordinary  deer,  and  it  is  only  the  very  best  of  the  animals 
that  can  sustain  the  weight  of  a  good  sized  man.  Nature 
has  made  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  of  small  stature 
and  slender  figures,  probably  in  an  effort  to  adapt  them  to 
the  carrying  capacities  of  their  beasts  of  burden.  A 
native  rides  one  deer  and  leads  a  pack  train  of  any  num- 
ber up  to  a  dozen,  the  halter  of  one  being  fastened  to  the 
tail  of  his  predecessor.  The  one  that  he  rides  is  guided 
by  a  halter  around  the  neck,  and  a  line  which  is  fastened 
to  the  nose  in  case  the  animal  is  without  horns. 

In  Kamchatka  and  the  Arctic  Regions  generally,  where 
dogs  are  employed  for  drawing  sledges,  they  are  broken  to 
their  work  while  quite  young.  Their  training  begins 
when  they  are  six  months  old,  but  they  are  not  put  to 
actual  labor  till  three  years  old,  unless  in  times  of  great 
distress  and  a  scarcity  of  dogs.  One  mode  of  training  is 
to  fasten  them  to  pqsts  or  trees,  with  thongs  of  green  skin, 
and  then  place  their  food  just  beyond  their  reach.  By 
reaching  for  it  they  stretch  the  green  thong  ;  in  this  way 
they  learn  to  pull  steadily  for  some  minutes  at  a  time,  and 
the  muscles  of  their  necks  are  strengthened.  Occasionally 
they  are  harnessed  to  carts  or  sledges  and  made  to  run  for 
short  distances,  and  are  thus  gradually  trained  to  the  work 
they  are  to  perform. 

Dogs  are  driven  without  reins  and  generally  without  a 
whip.  The  driver  has  a  stick,  called  an  ostoll,  with  one 
end  pointed  with  iron ;  this  he  uses  for  stopping  his  team 
when  he  wishes  to  bring  it  to  a  halt,  and  checks  its  speed 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  177 

when  descending  hills.  Occasionally  he  punishes  a 
refractory  dog  with  it,  but  not  often  as  the  hard  stick  is 
apt  to  inflict  permanent  injury  on  the  slender  bones  of  the 
animal.  The  most  important  dog  in  the  team  is  the 
leader,  whose  position  is  indicated  by  his  name.  He  is 
selected  for  his  superior  intelligence  and  docility,  and  his 
training  requires  much  care  and  attention.  An  ordinary 
team  dog  is  worth  from  eight  to  twelve  dollars,  while  fifty 
or  even  a  hundred  dollars  may  be  refused  for  a  good 
leader.  The  leader  obeys  the  voice  of  his  driver  and 
turns  to  the  right  or  left,  according  to  directions.  When 
the  team  is  weary  and  moves  at  a  slow  pace,  the  leader 
has  been  known  to  put  fresh  life  into  their  movements  by 
suddenly  pretending  to  have  fallen  on  the  track  of  an 
animal,  by  putting  his  nose  to  the  ground  or  snow  and 
barking  violently.  Away  they  go  in  pursuit,  and  only  the 
leading  dog  and  the  driver  are  aware  of  the  ruse  that  has 
been  played. 

A  team  may  consist  of  any  number  of  dogs  up  to 
twenty,  but  the  large  teams  are  only  used  for  carrying 
freight,  and  rarely  travel  faster  than  a  walk.  A  team  of 
running  dogs  for  traveling  purposes  usually  consists  of 
five  or  seven  ;  the  number  is  almost  always  odd,  as  it  con- 
sists of  one  or  more  pairs  of  dogs  and  a  leader.  The 
sledge  is  long  and  narrow,  and  the  size  and  shape  are 
varied,  according  to  the  way  it  is  to  be  used.  The  driver 
sits  sidewise  on  the  sledge  and  clings  to  it  with  one  hand, 
while  he  manages  his  ostoll  with  the  other.  The  travel- 
ing sledge  is  as  light  as  possible,  and  just  large  enough  to 
support  the  driver  and  a  very  little  cargo.  It  is  made  of 
wood,  fastened  together  with  thongs  of  deerskin,  and  the 
runners  are  usually  shod  with  polished  bone. 

A  good  team  will  travel  from  forty  to  sixty  miles  a  day 

with  favorable  roads.     Sometimes  a  hundred  miles  may 
12 


178  HOW  TO   TRAVEL. 

be  made  in  a  single  day,  but  such  performances  are  rare. 
The  news  of  the  declaration  of  the  Crimean  war  was  car- 
ried from  Bolcheretsk  to  Petropavlovsk,  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  miles,  in  twenty-three  hours  without  change  of 
dogs.  A  good  team  can  average  forty  miles  a  day,  and 
even  fifty  miles  for  a  week  or  more,  but  they  must  be 
lightly  laden,  and  have  favorable  roads. 

The  comparative  merits  of  dogs  and  reindeer  in  the 
countries  where  both  are  used  may  be  set  down  as 
follows  : — 

The  reindeer  seeks  his  own  food ;  he  lives  on  moss 
that  grows  beneath  the  snow,  which  he  scrapes  away  to 
reach  it.  Thus  he  may  travel  any  length  of  time  and  be 
in  good  condition,  provided  he  has  sufficient  time  each  day 
for  feeding. 

The  food  for  dogs  must  be  carried  on  the  sledge,  unless 
the  traveler  is  certain  of  finding  it  along  his  route.  The 
maximum  supply  that  can  be  carried  by  a  team  for  its 
sustenance  is  for  one  week.  Consequently  where  dog 
food  cannot  be  procured  every  five  or  six  days  those  ani- 
mals are  useless. 

A  forced  journey  can  be  made  with  dogs,  but  not  with 
reindeer.  Dogs  may  be  driven  till  utterly  exhausted,  and 
they  will  travel  an  entire  day,  or  even  more,  after  their 
food  has  given  out.  But  when  the  reindeer  is  weary  and 
hungry  he  stops  and  lies  down,  and  no  argument  that  his 
driver  can  use  will  induce  him  to  move  on.  He  may  be 
pounded  with  sticks,  or  prodded  with  goads  for  hours,  but 
all  to  no  purpose.  He  wants  his  food  and  will  have  it  at 
whatever  risk.  When  a  reindeer  team  thus  halts  there  is 
no  alternative  but  to  turn  the  animals  out  to  feed,  and 
wait  till  they  have  eaten  all  they  wish. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

TRAVELING  WITH  MAN-POWER.     PALAN- 
KEENS,   JINRIKISHAS,    AND    SEDAN-CHAIRS. 

To  be  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  fellow-man  is  not 
often  the  lot  of  the  American ;  the  most  frequent  form  of 
this  species  of  locomotion  in  the  United  States  is  decidedly- 
uncomfortable  and  degrading,  and  is  known  as  "  riding  on 
a  rail."  The  costume  for  an  expedition  of  this  sort  is  in- 
expensive and  ungraceful,  though  fitting  closely ;  it  usually 
consists  of  a  veneering  of  warm  tar  applied  to  the  skin  of 
the  tourist,  and  immediately  afterwards  he  is  rolled  in  a 
bed  of  feathers.  Thus  equipped  he  is  mounted  on  a  pole, 
generally  a  fence-rail,  without  saddle  or  bridle,  and  borne 
on  the  shoulders  of  those  who  supplied  his  wardrobe. 
There  is  no  mode  of  traveling  known  to  civilization  where 
the  accommodations  are  so  wretched,  and  the  mental  and 
physical  discomforts  so  great,  as  in  riding  on  a  rail  after 
the  American  system.  The  only  thing  in  its  favor  is  its 
cheapness,  as  it  is  generally  quite  gratuitous. 

In  Europe,  before  the  adoption  of  wheeled  vehicles, 
those  who  could  afford  the  luxury,  were  carried  in  chairs 
by  two  or  more  porters  ;  the  conveyance  was  said  to  have 
originated  in  Sedan,  France,  and  thus  became  known  as 
the  sedan  chair.  It  was  introduced  into  England  about 
the  time  of  King  Charles  First,  and  speedily  attained 
great  popularity.  It  was  gradually  displaced  by  the 
wheeled  carriage,  and  disappeared  from  the  cities  of  Con- 
tinental Europe,  one  after  another  ;  it  lingers  in  Constan 

(179) 


180  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

tinople  with  other  relics  of  past  ages,  and  may  be  seen 
occasionally  at  the  European  watering-places,  where  it  is 
used  to  convey  invalids  to  and  from  the  baths  and  springs. 
Before  the  construction  of  the  railway  on  Mount  Vesuvius 
chairs  were  employed  to  csLvry  visitors  up  the  steep  incline, 
and  they  can  be  seen  now  and  then  among  the  Swiss 
mountains.  To  see  the  c/iaise  a  porteurs  in  all  its  glory 
it  is  necessary  to  visit  Asia. 

The  first  vehicle  of  this  sort  that  meets  the  traveler's 
gaze  as  he  journeys  eastward  from  Europe  is  the  palan- 
keen, or  palkee^  as  it  is  usually  called  in  India.  It  is  a  con- 
veyance peculiar  to  India,  and  consists  of  a  box  about 
seven  feet  long  by  four  wide  and  three  high.  It  is  entirely 
of  wood,  roof  and  all,  and  there  is  a  sliding  door  in  each 
side,  while  the  interior  is  equipped  with  a  hard  mattress 
and  bolster.  There  is  a  pole  three  or  four  feet  long  at 
each  end,  which  rests  on  the  shoulders  of  the  bearers,  and 
is  generally  made  secure  by  iron  braces.  To  enter  this 
contrivance  you  back  into  it  till  you  can  sit  on  the  mat- 
tress, and  then  by  a  skilful  swing  you  bring  head  and  feet 
inside  at  the  same  moment.  Then  you  lie  down  at  full 
length  and  the  coolies  move  off.  You  are  expected  to  lie 
still,  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  equilibrium,  and  in  the  ener- 
vating climate  of  India  you  are  quite  willing  to  be  mo- 
tionless. The  bearers  have  a  peculiar  swinging  step  that 
saves  you  from  any  jolts,  and  the  motion  is  quite  luxu- 
rious. 

Formerly  in  the  cities  of  India  the  foreign  residents 
made  great  use  of  the  palankeen,  and  every  person  of  re- 
spectability was  supposed  to  keep  one,  together  with  the 
appropriate  number  of  bearers.  Of  late  j-ears  it  has  been 
largely  superceded  by  the  horse  carriage,  of  which  there 
are  two  or  three  varieties,  and  the  palkee-bearers  have  been 
forced  to  seek  other  employments.     Four  bearers  are  nee- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  181 

essary  to  carry  the  palkee,  and  four  more  run  alongside  to 
take  their  share  of  the  burden  when  the  first  are  weary. 
At  night  a  torch-bearer  is  necessary  to  light  the  way,  and 
to  do  the  thing  in  style,  there  should  be  four  torch-bear- 
ers, two  in  front  and  two  in  the  rear.  Formerly  the  pal- 
kee was  the  only  means  of  traveling  in  the  interior  of  In- 
dia, but  the  carriage  road,  and  later  the  railway,  have 
made  the  "  palkee  dawk  "  (palankeen  express)  among  the 
things  that  were. 

For  traveling  on  the  high  roads  through  the  interior 
each  palankeen  required  sixteen  bearers,  and  if  the  trav- 
eler had  more  than  a  very  little  baggage  he  was  com- 
pelled to  hire  from  eight  to  twelve  men  to  carry  it.  The 
torch-bearers  and  other  attendants  generally  brought  his 
retinue  up  to  thirty-five  or  forty  men,  and  sometimes  even 
more.  There  were  stations  on  the  road  every  ten  miles 
where  relays  were  obtained,  and  there  was  always  more  or 
less  delay  at  these  stations,  so  that  the  palkee  was  not  a 
rapid  means  of  travel.  The  "  lightning  dawk,"  as  the 
natives  call  the  locomotive,  has  beaten  it  quite  out  of  sight. 

A  cheaper  vehicle  for  country  travel  is  the  dhoolie,  a 
sort  of  chair  with  a  covering  of  canvas  or  muslin ;  it  is 
lighter  than  the  palkee,  and  requires  only  twelve  bearers 
instead  of  sixteen.  An  English  statesman  of  considerable 
renown  once  spoke  in  Parliament  of  the  ferocious  dhoo- 
lies  that  carried  the  wounded  from  the  battle-field  on  a 
certain  occasion ;  he  was  under  the  impression  that  the 
dhoolie  was  a  blood-thirsty  native  rather  than  an  inoffen- 
sive chair. 

What  the  palankeen  was  to  India  the  sedan-chair  is  to 
China.  As  the  traveler  finds  it  at  Hong  Kong  or  Canton 
it  is  a  bamboo  chair  with  a  ventilating  top,  like  a  Vene- 
tian blind,  and  it  has  curtains  at  the  side  that  may  be 
rolled  up  or  let  down  at  will.     It  has  a  floor  for  the  feet, 


182  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

and  rests  for  the  arms,  and  altogether  the  Chinese  chair  is 
a  very  comfortable  vehicle.  Long  poles  are  fastened  to 
the  sides,  parallel  with  each  other  and  projecting  three  or 
four  feet  in  front  and  rear,  and  by  these  poles  the  concern 
is  carried.  The  chair  is  placed  on  the  ground  for  you  to 
enter  it,  and  you  have  none  of  the  difficulty  experienced 
in  getting  into  a  palankeen.  You  simply  sit  down  as  in 
an  arm-chair  at  home ;  when  you  are  seated,  the  bearers 
seize  the  poles,  and,  at  a  signal  from  their  leader,  swing 
the  burden  to  its  place  on  their  shoulders.  They  move  at 
a  swinging  pace,  and  usually,  but  not  always,  keep  step  in 
unison.  Every  ten  minutes  or  so  they  change  the  pole 
from  one  shoulder  to  the  other,  and  about  every  half  hour 
they  halt  and  put  the  chair  on  the  ground  for  a  few  min- 
utes. You  may  retain  your  place  during  this  halt  or  get 
out  and  stretch  your  limbs,  just  as  you  please. 

In  all  the  cities  of  China  the  chair  is  in  use,  and  in  most, 
if  not  all  of  them,  the  streets  are  so  narrow  that  carriages 
could  not  possibly  move  about.  For  a  short  ride  tw^o 
bearers  are  sufficient,  and  the  chairs  for  hire  in  the  streets 
of  Hong  Kong  rarely  have  more  than  two.  But  for  an 
excursion  into  the  country,  or  to  the  summit  of  Victoria 
peak,  overlooking  Hong  Kong  harbor,  four  bearers  are 
necessary.  There  is  a  regular  tariff  for  chairs,  just  as 
there  is  for  cabs  in  London  or  Paris.  A  short  course  costs 
ten  cents,  and  a  longer  one  in  proportion,  and  a  chair 
with  four  bearers  for  an  entire  day,  in  making  the  circuit  of 
Canton,  may  be  had  for  a  dollar.  Labor  is  cheap  in  the 
far  East. 

Two-wheeled  cabs,  drawn  by  a  single  horse,  take  the 
place  of  the  chair  to  some  extent  in  Pekin,  but  there  are 
many  streets  where  the  cabs  cannot  circulate.  In  Shang- 
hai the  wheelbarrow  is  a  rival  of  the  chair ;  it  is  cheaper 
and  more  uncomfortable,  and  its  use  is  almost  entirely  con- 


HOW   TO   TRAVEL,  183 

fined  to  the  natives.  It  has  no  springs,  the  pavement  is 
rough,  the  man  between  the  shafts  is  generally  far  from 
strong,  and  altogether  the  wheelbarrow  of  Northern  China 
is  not  to  be  recommended. 

The  man-power  vehicle,  par  excellence,  is  the  jinrikisha 
of  Japan.  It  rej)laces  the  norimon  and  cango,  peculiar 
forms  of  the  sedan-chair,  and  has  only  been  in  use  since 
1870.  It  is  said  to  have  been  invented  by  an  American, 
and  the  first  jinrikishas  that  were  used  were  imported 
from  San  Francisco.  Probably  not  less  than  a  hundred 
thousand  of  them  are  now  in  use  throughout  Japan,  and 
they  are  said  to  have  penetrated  to  the  remotest  districts. 

The  jinrikisha  is  a  carriage  like  a  small  chaise  of  the 
New  England  pattern ;  it  is  on  two  wheels,  and  has  shafts 
like  a  handcart,  and  there  is  a  hood  over  the  top  that  can 
be  opened  or  closed  at  pleasure.  The  coolie  that  draws 
it  places  the  shafts  on  the  ground  to  permit  you  to  enter, 
and,  until  he  picks  them  up,  you  are  sitting  with  your  head 
bent  forward.  The  cross-piece  of  the  shafts  held  against 
his  breast  brings  the  carriage  to  a  level,  and  then  you  are 
ready  for  a  start.  The  jinrikisha  is  intended  for  one  per- 
son, but  occasionally  you  see  two  Japanese  or  Chinese  of 
medium  size  occupying  a  single  vehicle. 

For  a  short  ride  in  a  Japanese  city  one  man  to  pull  your 
carriage  is  sufficient,  but  for  a  journey  into  the  country,  or 
of  several  miles,  you  need  two  men,  or  perhaps  three. 
Where  you  have  but  one  man  you  should  not  expect  to  go 
as  rapidly  as  with  two  or  three,  and  you  must  dismount  in 
sandy  places,  or  when  a  hill  is  to  be  ascended.  The  speed 
and  endurance  of  these  men  is  something  wonderful.  It 
is  nothing  unusual  for  three  of  them  to  pull  a  jinrikisha 
fifty  miles  in  twelve  hours,  with  only  three  halts  of  a  quar* 
ter  of  an  hour  each,  and  they  have  been  known  to  make 
sixty-five  miles  between  sunrise  and  sunset  of  a  long  day. 


184  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

The  \\Titer,  with  three  men  to  his  carriage,  traveled  from 
Osaka  to  Nara,  a  distance  of  thirty  miles,  between  lo  a.  m. 
and  5  p.  m.,  with  a  halt  of  an  hour  for  dinner.  The  next 
day  he  continued  his  journey  to  Kioto,  thirty  miles  more, 
in  a  pouring  rain,  with  the  same  men  in  the  same  time. 
The  coolies  were  as  fresh  on  the  second  day  as  on  the 
first,  and  as  cheerful  as  one  could  wish,  although  their  pas- 
senger was  not  a  light  weight,  and  was  suffering  from  a 
lameness  that  prevented  his  walking  up  any  of  the  hills. 

Riding  with  a  jinrikisha  is  cheap  enough  for  the  most 
contracted  purse.  The  tariff  in  the  large  cities  of  Japan 
IS  ten  cents  an  hour,  or  fifty  cents  for  a  day  of  twelve 
hours,  and  if  the  traveler  wishes  to  keep  his  carriage  wait- 
ing for  him,  and  subject  to  his  call,  he  can  readily  make  a 
bargain  for  not  over  three  dollars  a  week.  Most  of  the 
foreigners  in  Japan  keep  their  own  carriages  by  bu}dng  a 
jinrikisha,  and  hiring  a  couple  of  men  for  six  or  seven 
dollars  each  per  month.  They  perform  the  work  of  gen- 
eral servants  about  the  house  and  grounds,  and  whenever 
the  master  wishes  to  ride  out  he  orders  the  jinrikisha  and 
its  accompanying  coolies.  A  carriage  of  ordinary  work- 
manship costs  about  twenty-five  dollars,  and  a  "  swell "  one 
can  be  had  for  fifty  or  something  less.  Its  name  is  com- ' 
pounded  of  three  Japanese  words — jin,  man,  riki,  power, 
and  sha,  carriage — jin-riki-sha,  man-power-carriage. 

The  stranger  in  Japan,  China,  or  India,  finds  it  disagree- 
able to  ride  on  men's  shoulders,  or  to  be  drawn  by  them 
in  a  vehicle.  Especially  is  this  the  case  in  Japan,  where 
you  have  the  struggling  and  perspiring  man  directly  before 
you,  and  witness  the  effort  he  is  making  to  propel  you 
over  the  ground.  Everybody  experiences  this  feeling,  and 
his  first  ride  in  a  man-power  carriage  is  rarely  agreeable. 
But  when  you  remember  that  the  coolie  considers  it  a  fa- 
vor to  be  employed,  and  that  nothing  would  displease  him 


HOW  TO  tra\t:l.  185 

more  than  to  have  the  offer  of  his  services  refused,  you 
will  change  your  mind,  and  take  your  ease  in  a  jinrikisha. 
Regard  him  as  you  would  the  man  whom  you  employ  to 
saw  wood  or  dig  potatoes ;  he  is  thankful  for  the  opportu- 
nity of  working,  and  so  is  the  Japanese  coolie  who  exerts 
his  strength  to  pull  you  about.  And  when  you  have  done 
with  him  give  a  few  cents  extra,  and  he  will  thank  you 
with  an  expression  so  heartfelt  that  you  cannot  fail  to  be 
touched  by  it. 

Many  of  the  Japanese  still  prefer  the  cango  to  the 
jinrikisha,  but  it  is  rapidly  going  out  of  use  in  all  the 
localities  where  the  miniature  chaise  can  run.  The  cango 
is  a  sort  of  open-sided  basket  slung  on  a  pole,  and  carried 
by  two  men  in  the  same  way  that  a  sedan-chair  is  carried. 
The  occupant  must  double  his  legs  beneath  him,  and  sit 
perfectly  still ;  this  is  easy  enough  for  a  Japanese,  but  is 
torture  to  a  European.  No  man  from  Europe  or  Amer- 
ica will  ever  find  the  cango  enjoyable  until  a  system  is  in- 
vented whereby  he  can  unscrew  his  legs  before  starting, 
and  screw  them  on  again  when  his  journey  is  completed. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

PEDESTRIAN  TRAVELING.— MOUNTAIN 
CLIMBING. 

The  earliest  form  of  traveling  was  on  foot;  it  was  in 
universal  use  before  the  horse  and  other  beasts  of  burden 
were  subdued  to  the  will  of  man,  and  before  the  railway 
and  steamship  were  invented.  In  spite  of  the  lapse  of 
ages,  and  the  many  improvements  in  locomotive  means,  it 
continues  to  be  practiced  by  a  great  many  persons,  and 
will  doubtless  so  continue  as  long  as  men  have  feet  to 
walk  with.  The  large  majority  of  pedestrians  are  such 
from  necessity,  but  the  class  that  prefers  to  walk  when  it 
can  afford  to  ride  is  by  no  means  small. 

The  railway  has  been  the  great  destroyer  of  pedestrian 
travel,  and,  at  the  present  time,  very  few  people,  except 
those  absolutely  without  money,  take  to  the  high-road 
where  there  is  an  iron  way  to  carry  them  to  their  destina- 
tion. Unless  there  is  some  reason  for  the  foot  journey  be- 
yond the  desire  to  reach  a  certain  place,  the  railway 
affords  the  greatest  economy  of  money  and  time,  as  the 
merest  glance  at  the  figures  will  show.  Suppose  a  man 
wishes  to  go  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  a  distance 
of  ninety  miles ;  at  thirty  miles  a  day  he  will  be  three  days 
on  the  road  if  he  uses  his  feet,  and  three  hours  if  he  takes 
the  railway.  The  fare  by  railway  will  be  two  dollars,  and 
his  loss  of  time  half  a  day  ;  reckoning  his  meals  and  lodg- 
ing along  the  high-road  at  one  dollar  a  day  his  expenses 

(186) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  187 

in  footing  it  would  be  three  dollars,  without  counting  the 
loss  of  time,  which  most  Americans  consider  equivalent 
to  money.  Far  greater  is  the  contrast  in  a  long  journey 
across  the  Continent,  or  over  a  considerable  portion  of  it, 
so  that  the  most  miserly  of  men  is  not  likely  to  put  his  own 
feet  in  competition  with  the  wheels  of  the  locomotive. 

Pedestrian  journeys  in  America  are  mainly  confined  to 
young  men  in  search  of  health,  who  throng  the  routes  of 
New  England  and  northern  New  York  in  the  summer 
months.  In  Europe  the  principal  resorts  of  the  pedestrian 
are  the  mountain  regions  of  Switzerland,  Italy,  and  Ger- 
many, and  there  is  a  fair  amount  of  the  same  kind  of  travel 
in  Norway,  Sweden,  and  the  lake  and  mountain  districts 
of  Scotland.  Workmen  going  from  one  town  to  another 
in  search  of  employment  are  often  encountered,  and  in 
some  countries  of  the  Continent  such  journeys  are  obliga- 
tory upon  apprentices  before  they  can  be  allowed  to 
practice  the  trades  they  have  learned. 

Fifty  years  or  more  ago  there  was  a  half-pedestrian  sys- 
tem in  vogue  in  the  United  States,  especially  on  the  great 
roads  leading  to  the  west.  It  was  known  by  the  name  of 
"  ride  and  tie,"  and  many  an  emigrant  of  those  days  found 
his  way  west  by  this  process.     It  was  about  as  follows  : 

Two  men,  whom  we  will  call  Smith  and  Jones,  unite 
their  funds  and  buy  a  horse  and  saddle.  Their  baggage 
is  stowed  in  the  saddle-bags,  so  that  neither  of  them  has 
anything  to  carry  beyond  his  strong  walking-stick.  On 
the  morning  fixed  for  their  departure  Smith  mounts  the 
horse  and  starts  at  an  easy  pace  along  the  road,  while 
Jones  follows  on  foot.  It  has  been  arranged  that  the  first 
*'  tie  "  shall  be  at  a  village  twenty  miles  away. 

In  four  hours  Smith  and  the  horse  have  made  the  twenty 
miles,  and  the  horse  is  put  up  at  a  tavern  and  fed,  while 
Smith  proceeds  on  foot.     When  Jones  arrives  the  horse 


188  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

has  had  a  rest  of  three  hours  or  more,  and  is  ready  for 
another  twenty  miles  which  Jones  proceeds  to  give  him. 
He  passes  Smith  on  the  way,  and  arrives  at  the  next  vil- 
lage, where  he  orders  supper  and  awaits  the  arrival  of  his 
comrade.  They  spend  the  night  in  company,  and  the  next 
morning  the  journey  is  continued  in  the  same  way ;  gener- 
ally the  scheme  is  reversed  on  successive  mornings,  the 
one  who  was  first  to  ride  one  day  being  the  last  to  do  so 
on  the  next.  In  this  way  they  make  forty  miles  a  day, 
and  each  of  them  has  only  a  comfortable  walk  while  the 
horse  is  kept  in  good  condition. 

For  a  pedestrian  tour  among  the  mountains,  either  of 
Europe  or  America,  the  principal  requisites  are  a  reason- 
ably strong  constitution,  good  feet,  and  good  shoes  to 
wear  on  them.  Shoes  are  preferable  to  boots,  as  the  lat- 
ter are  apt  to  weaken  the  ankles,  especially  if  made  with 
elastic  at  the  sides.  Besides  they  are  heavier  than  shoes, 
and  w^here  we  are  taking  a  walk  of  many  miles  every  in- 
finitesimal fraction  of  an  ounce  added  to  the  weight  of 
our  foot-gear  counts  against  us.  Of  course  there  are 
occasions  where  boots  are  required  for  protection  against 
mud,  snow,  or  sand,  but  where  roads  are  good  and  smooth 
shoes  should  have  the  preference.  They  should  be  easy 
without  being  loose,  and  sufficiently  wide  to  give  freedom 
to  the  toes.  The  soles  should  be  broad,  and  the  heels 
low  and  wide ;  all  doubts  on  this  score  can  be  settled  by 
ascertaining  the  kind  of  shoes  worn  by  the  professional 
pedestrians  in  the  great  walking-matches  that  have  recently 
become  fashionable. 

The  author  of  Baedeker's  guide-books  is  a  good  adviser 
in  the  matter  of  pedestrian  excursions,  as  he  has  tramped 
over  the  most  of  Switzerland  and  Germany,  and  believes 
that  the  best  way  of  "  doing  "  them  is  on  foot.  He  says 
as  follows  : — 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  189 

"  A  light  *  gibeciere/  or  game-bag,  such  as  may  be  pro- 
cured in  every  town,  amply  suffices  to  contain  all  that  is 
necessary  for  a  fortnight's  excursion.  Heavy  and  com- 
plicated knapsacks  should  be  avoided ;  a  light  pouch,  or 
game-bag,  is  far  less  irksome,  and  its  position  may  be 
shifted  at  pleasure.  A  change  of  flannel  shirts  and  wors- 
ted stockings,  a  few  pocket-handkerchiefs,  a  pair  of  slip- 
pers, and  the  articles  of  the  toilet  will  generally  be  found 
sufficient,  to  which  a  light  mackintosh  and  a  stout  um- 
brella should  be  added.  A  piece  of  green  crape  or  col- 
ored glasses,  to  protect  the  eyes  from  the  glare  of  the 
snow,  and  a  leather  drinking-cup  will  be  found  useful.  The 
traveler  should,  of  course,  have  a  more  extensive  reserve 
of  clothing,  especially  if  he  expects  to  visit  towns  of  im- 
portance. This  can  be  contained  in  a  valise,  which  he 
can  easily  wield  when  necessary,  and  may  forward  from 
town  to  town  by  post." 

"  The  first  golden  rule  of  the  pedestrian  is  to  start  on 
his  way  betimes  in  the  morning.  If  strength  permit,  and 
a  good  halting^place  is  to  be  met  with,  a  two  hours'  walk 
may  be  accomplished  before  breakfast.  At  noon  a  mod- 
erate luncheon  is  preferable  to  the  regular  table  d'hote 
dinner.  Repose  should  be  taken  during  the  hottest  hours, 
aud  the  journey  then  continued  till  5  or  6  P.  M.,  when  a 
substantial  meal  may  be  eaten.  The  traveler's  own  feel- 
ings will  best  dictate  the  hour  for  retiring  to  bed. 

"  For  wounds  and  bruises  a  vial  of  tincture  of  arnica 
should  be  carried,  and  it  has  an  invigorating  effect  if 
rubbed  on  the  limbs  after  fatigue."  The  traveler  should 
not  fail  to  be  provided  with  a  few  of  the  simple  medicines 
best  adapted  to  his  system,  as  he  may  often  need  them 
when  they  are  quite  unattainable.  Avoid  drinking  water 
too  freely,  especially  where  it  comes  directly  from  the 
melting  snows  of  the  mountains.     There  are  many  per- 


190  HOW  TO  TRA\1EL. 

sons  who  rarely  drink  water,  whether  on  pedestrian  ex- 
cursions or  at  other  times,  and  to  them  the  preceding  ad- 
vice will  be  superfluous.  Cold  tea  is  regarded  as  the 
best  beverage  by  the  majority  of  pedestrians,  and  its  in- 
vigorating powers  are  often  remarkable." 

When  starting  on  a  pedestrian  excursion  be  careful  not 
to  overtax  your  strength.  Five  or  six  hours  a  day  are 
sufficient  to  begin  with,  and  when  no  fatigue  results  from 
a  single  day's  work  that  of  the  next  may  be  increased.  By 
adding  half  an  hour  daily  to  his  task,  a  traveler  will  soon 
be  able  to  devote  ten  or  twelve  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four  to  the  use  of  his  feet.  The  most  experienced  pedes- 
trians advise  that  the  limit  should  be  ten  hours,  except  on 
extraordinary  occasions.  An  even,  steady  pace  should  be 
adopted,  and  ever\-thing  like  a  "  spurt  "  is  to  be  avoided. 
Many  a  traveler  has  broken  down  in  the  effort  to  do  more 
than  he  ought,  either  in  going  too  far  in  a  given  time,  or 
walking  faster  than  the  accustomed  pace  to  see  how  many 
miles  he  could  cover  in  an  hour. 

For  climbing  high  mountains,  special  practice  in  walk- 
ing is  a  necessity.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  fatigue  con- 
sequent upon  the  ascent  of  Mont  Blanc  and  his  snow- 
covered  brethren  of  the  Alps,  partly  due  to  the  exertion 
of  walking  through  the  snow,  and  over  the  rough  rocks, 
and  partly  to  the  rarity  of  the  atmosphere  in  elevated 
positions.  None  but  good  walkers  should  attempt  these 
journeys,  as  it  is  a  serious  matter  to  break  down  at  a  point 
far  from  roads,  and  where  assistance  may  be  a  long  time 
coming.  The  members  of  the  English  and  other  Alpine 
clul)s  generally  devote  at  least  a  month  to  the  ordinary 
excursions  among  the  mountains  before  venturing  on  a 
"  course  extraordinaire,"  like  the  ascent  of  Mont  Blanc. 
The  ascent  of  the  Matterhorn  is  far  more  difficult  than 
that  of  Mont  Blanc,  and  the  preliminary  practice  propor- 
tionally longer. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  191 

The  equipment  for  an  Alpine  ascent  above  the  snow- 
line is  quite  simple,  but  should  be  of  the  very  best  quality. 
The  traveler  will  need  an  alpenstock,  or  strong  stick,  from 
five  to  six  feet  long ;  it  should  be  of  the  best  seasoned 
ash,  and  one  end  should  be  pointed  with  iron  to  give  it  a 
firm  hold  on  the  ice.  It  should  be  as  light  as  possible, 
consistent  with  strength,  and  the  test  to  be  given  is  to  have 
it  sustain  the  weight  of  its  owner,  when  supported  at  ihe 
ends.  Ice-axes  and  ropes  are  also  needed  for  the  higher 
mountains,  and  sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  carry  a  ladder 
for  crossing  crevasses.  Mountain-climbing  in  Switzerland 
has  been  reduced  to  a  system,  and  there  are  associations 
of  guides  who  make  it  a  business  to  accompany  tourists 
in  ascents  more  or  less  difficult.  The  ascent  of  Mont 
Blanc,  formerly  so  difficult,  is  now  quite  easy,  as  there  is 
a  hotel  at  the  "  Grands  Mulcts"  where  the  night  is  passed, 
and  though  the  accommodations  are  limited,  they  are  quite 
sufficient  for  the  robust  traveler.  Everything  that  is 
needed  for  the  journey  can  be  obtained  from  the  guides 
at  fixed  rates,  and  the  only  care  of  the  stranger  is  to  see 
that  what  he  orders  is  of  the  best  quality. 

The  regulation  time  at  present  for  the  ascent  of  Mont 
Blanc  from  Chamouny  and  return  is  two  days.  The  trav- 
eler starts  at  7  A.  m.  and  arrives  at  the  Grands  Mulets 
about  3  or  4  in  the  afternoon.  At  4  the  next  morning  he 
is  called,  and  after  a  light  breakfast  a  start  is  made  for  the 
summit,  which  should  be  reached  by  nine  o'clock.  The  re- 
turn to  Chamouny  is  usually  accomplished  by  sunset,  but 
many  travelers  who  have  plenty  of  time  at  their  disposal 
prefer  to  spend  the  second  night  at  the  Grands  Mulets, 
and  return  leisurely  on  the  third  day  to  Chamouny.  Each 
tourist  requires  a  guide  and  a  porter  to  accompany  him, 
and  sometimes  half  a  dozen  guides  to  each  tourist  are 
taken.     Each  guide  receives  one  hundred  francs  (twenty 


193  now  TO  TRA'S'EL. 

dollars)  for  his  services,  and  the  porter  half  that  amount, 
so  that  the  cost  of  an  ascent  of  Mont  Blanc  is  by  no  means 
small.     The  dangers  are  now  much  less  than  formerly,  as         ' 
the  crevasses  are  all  well  known  to  the  guides,  whose  di-         i 
rections  should  be   followed  implicitly.      The   principal 
peril  is  from  sudden  storms  of  snow,  in  which  travelers         » 
are  overwhelmed  as  in  a  sand-storm  in  the  desert.     In 
1870  a  party  of  eleven  persons  perished  in  a  snow-storm; 
they  had  been  to  the  summit  and  were  nearly  half-way 
back  to  the  Grands  Mulcts  when  the  snow-cloud  burst 
upon  them.     The  guides  can   generally  foretell  the    ap- 
proach of  bad  weather,  and  the  cautious  tourist  will  not 
insist  upon  making  the  ascent  against  their  advice. 

It  has  been  said  that  tourists  need  only  go  part  of  the 
way  up  the  mountain  to  obtain  a  certificate  of  having  made 
the  entire  ascent,  provided  they  pay  for  the  complete 
course.  It  is  doubtful  if  this  is  the  case ;  not  that  the 
guides  would  be  unwilling  to  oblige  a  patron,  but  because 
the  summit  is  in  full  view  of  the  village  of  Chamouny, 
and  parties  who  make  the  ascent  are  watched  through 
powerful  telescopes  by  loungers  on  the  verandas  of  the 
hotels. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

TRAVELING  WITHOUT  MONEY. 

Anyone  can  travel  who  has  time  and  money  at  his  dis- 
posal, but  it  requires  genius,  or  its  first  cousin,  improvi- 
dence, to  travel  without  it.  One  who  is  not  a  genius,  but 
who  possesses  common-sense  and  prudent  habits  may  see 
a  great  deal  of  the  world  for  a  very  little  cash.  Bayard 
Taylor  made  the  tour  of  Europe  in  his  younger  days  for 
less  than  five  hundred  dollars,  and  devoted  more  than  a 
year  to  the  journey ;  how  he  did  it  is  told  in  his  volume 
entitled  "  Views  Afoot."  He  has  had  many  imitators,  and 
some  of  them  have  traveled  for  less  than  he  did ;  of  this 
class  was  Ralph  Keeler,  who  claimed  to  have  seen  Europe 
for  less  than  two  hundred  dollars,  but  he  went  through 
many  hardships  that  the  majority  of  men  would  decline 
to  undergo. 

In  the  fall  of  1880  an  account  was  published  of  a  printer 
who  made  a  tour  around  the  world  in  four  years,  and  had 
only  fifty  dollars  in  his  pocket  when  he  started.  Accord- 
ing to  his  story,  he  left  San  Francisco  in  1876  as  steward 
of  a  sailing-ship,  which  he  quitted  at  Honolulu  for  work 
in  a  newspaper  office  there.  After  setting  type  for  a  month 
he  arranged  to  take  care  of  some  horses  that  were  being 
shipped  to  Melbourne,  and  in  this  way  he  reached  Aus- 
tralia. He  remained  in  that  country  nearly  a  year,  tramp- 
ing through  it,  and  occasionally  working  at  his  trade.  He 
shipped  on  a  coasting-vessel  as  a  sailor  in  the  fall  of  1877, 
was  wrecked  on  a  reef,  and  picked  up  by  a  ship  that  car- 
13  (193) 


194  HOW   TO   TRAVEL. 

ried  him  to  Suez.  Through  Egypt  and  the  Holy  Land  he 
went  as  servant  to  travelers,  and  as  a  vagrant,  and  in  this 
way  managed  to  get  to  Constantinople,  and  thence  up  the 
Danube  to  Vienna.  From  Vienna  he  walked  northward 
to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic,  where  he  again  became  a 
sailor  during  the  summer  of  1S78.  In  the  fall  of  that  year 
he  re-crossed  Europe,  most  of  the  way  on  foot,  till  he 
reached  Rome,  and  from  there  he  proceeded  to  Spain,  and 
thence  to  Paris.  He  was  in  the  French  capital  till  July, 
1S79,  when  he  had  earned  money  enough  to  carry  him  to 
Ivondon,  where  he  remained  some  weeks,  and  then  sailed 
for  Charleston,  S.  C.  From  Charleston  he  walked  through 
most  of  the  coast  States,  and  when  the  account  was  pub- 
lished he  had  reached  Detroit  on  his  way  to  San  Fran- 
cisco. \Vhen  asked  if  he  had  experienced  any  real  hard 
times,  he  answered  : — 

"  I  suppose  you  would  call  it  hard  to  go  twenty-four 
hours  without  food,  but  I  have  done  that  many  times  and 
it  didn't  hurt  me,  and  I  have  lived  for  weeks  at  a  time 
without  knowing  what  a  bed  was,  and  without  clean 
clothes,  except  as  I  would  wash  my  own  shirt  and  wear 
my  coat  buttoned  closely  while  it  was  drj-ing."  He  said 
further  that  such  little  conveniences  as  stockings,  collars, 
cuffs,  and  handkerchiefs  never  entered  his  thoughts. 

Not  many  would  care  to  travel  after  the  manner  of  this 
wandering  printer,  but  there  is  a  fair  number  of  Ameri- 
cans who  set  out  to  see  the  world  with  very  little  more 
money  than  this  man  had  in  his  pocket  at  the  commence- 
ment of  his  journey.  If  the  annals  of  the  American  con- 
sulates could  be  published  a  great  many  of  us  would  be 
surprised  to  know  the  number  of  appeals  to  the  consular 
pocket  for  aid.  The  story  usually  told  at  the  consulates 
is  that  the  traveler's  remittances  have  failed  to  reach  him, 
and  he  desires  a  loan  for  a  few  days  till  his  letters  arrive. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  195 

They  generally  do  not  come,  and  when  the  money  that  was 
borrowed  is  gone  another  appeal  is  made  and  with  the 
same  excuse.  When  the  consul's  patience  is  exhausted 
(and  also  his  purse),  the  adventurer  makes  a  final  petition 
for  sufficient  money  to  carry  him  to  the  next  city,  where 
the  same  story  is  told,  and  the  same  process  goes  on.  In 
this  way  a  tourist  may  live  comfortably  for  a  couple  of 
weeks  or  so  in  each  of  the  principal  cities  of  Europe,  pro- 
vided he  can  find  the  consuls  able  and  willing  to  "  lend  " 
him  what  he  wants. 

The  foregoing  is  intended  as  a  hint  to  the  enterprising 
American  who  has  neither  conscience  nor  money  and  is  de- 
sirous of  traveling  abroad.  The  best  time  for  him  to  be- 
gin his  travels  on  this  plan  is  just  after  a  change  of  the 
presidential  administration  has  caused  a  sweeping  removal 
in  the  consular  offces  and  the  appointment  of  a  new  set 
of  incumbents.  A  new  consul  is  anxious  to  be  polite  and 
obliging,  and  will  often  prove  a  rich  mine  to  the  adven- 
turer, while  the  old  one  has  become  case-hardened  in  the 
service,  and  is  sceptical  about  the  stories  that  the  unfortu- 
nates tell  him,  and  you  should  gauge  your  appeal  accord- 
ing to  the  time  a  man  has  filled  a  consular  office.  If  he  is 
newly-arrived  you  can  make  three  or  four  loans  of  ten 
dollars  or  so  while  waiting  for  your  remittances,  and  can 
then  borrow  more  to  move  on  with.  If  he  has  been  there 
a  year  or  two  you  can  hardly  expect  more  than  a  couple 
of  preliminaries,  or  perhaps  only  one,  and  if  he  has  been 
there  three  or  four  years  you  cannot  expect  him  to  do 
more  than  pay  your  second  or  third-class  passage  to  the 
next  place. 

The  adventurer  who  seeks  to  travel  for  nothing  some- 
times claims  to  be  the  correspondent  of  a  newspaper,  and 
not  unfrequently  he  writes  letters  for  a  daily  or  weekly 
journal.     If  he   cannot  obtain  the  loan  he  wants  he  re- 


196  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

venges  himself  by  writing  an  abusive  letter  about  the  con- 
sul  who  has  refused  him,  and  sometimes  he  gets  the  latter 
into  trouble.  Nine-tenths  of  the  abusive  letters  about  our 
consuls  abroad  come  from  the  fellows  who  try  to  borrow 
money  and  fail.  As  a  general  thing  the  American  consuls 
in  Europe  and  Asia  are  capable  men  who  render  their 
country  good  service  for  inadequate  pay ;  the  government 
gives  them  no  contingent  fund  from  which  to  make  up 
their  losses  from  loans  to  swindlers,  and  all  these  sums 
must  come  out  of  their  own  pockets.  The  evil  is  so  great 
that  there  is  not  a  consul  who  has  been  a  year  in  the  ser- 
vice who  does  not  tremble  when  a  strange  American  pre- 
sents himself  at  the  consulate  and  wishes  to  see  the  repre- 
sentative of  his  country-.  The  chances  are  three  to  one 
that  a  "  loan  "  is  wanted,  and  the  tale  that  accompanies 
the  application  is  so  pitiful  that  it  would  melt  the  heart  of 
a  bronze  dog.  Some  of  the  consuls  require  strangers  to 
state  their  business  to  the  clerk  before  they  can  see  the 
chief,  but  it  needs  more  courage  to  demand  it  than  is  pos- 
sessed by  the  majority  of  American  officials. 

Some  of  our  representatives  abroad  have  painful  recol- 
lections of  visits  from  "  inspectors  of  consulates "  ap- 
pointed by  the  government  to  make  tours  of  inspection  in 
various  parts  of  the  world.  Two  at  least  of  this  gentry 
made  it  a  practice  to  ask  a  loan  of  fifty  dollars  of  each 
consul  before  inspecting  his  office ;  if  the  money  was  forth- 
coming the  office  was  speedily  examined  and  found  to  be 
in  excellent  condition,  but  if  the  consul  was  not  in  a  lend- 
ing mood  he  was  reported  to  have  his  books  in  bad  shape, 
and  to  be  personally  unfit  for  the  position  he  was  filling. 
It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  great  majority  of  the  consuls 
saw  the  point,  and  imitated  the  example  of  Captain  Scott's 
coon  by  "  coming  down  "  before  the  fire  was  opened.  And 
no  one  of  them  to  this  day  has  been  repaid  a  penny  of  the 
borrowed  money. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  197 

Memorandum  :  If  you  can  add  the  title  of  "  Inspector 
of  Consulates  "  to  your  other  accomplishments  you  will 
vastly  improve  your  chances  of  swindling  your  way  around 
the  world.  The  most  of  these  ofificials  are  men  of  excel- 
lent character,  and  if  you  try  the  role  you  must  assume  the 
manners  of  a  gentlemen,  however  much  you  may  be  de- 
void of  his  instincts.     ~ 

There  is  a  fair  number  of  American  adventurers  in  the 
European  cities  who  live  by  searching  out  their  country- 
men as  fast  as  they  arrive  and  making  loans  more  or  less 
small.  These  fellows  watch  the  hotel  registers  and  the 
lists  of  strangers  in  the  newspapers,  and  their  methods  of 
conducting  their  operations  are  numerous  and  varied. 
London  and  Paris  contain  more  of  them  than  any  other 
cities,  and  perhaps  London  has  a  greater  number  than  its 
French  rival.  One  of  the  most  ingenious  devices  for  fleec- 
ing the  stranger  was  adopted  by  an  American  who  lived 
some  years  in  Paris  ;  he  had  no  patent  upon  it,  and  as  he 
is  dead  now  anyone  who  chooses  may  take  it  up.  It  was 
as  follows  : — 

He  operated  around  the  Grand  Hotel,  and  other  resorts 
of  Americans,  and  managed  to  make  himself  acquainted 
with  as  many  new-comers  as  possible.  He  was  particular 
in  cultivating  anyone  to  give  his  card  and  ask  that  of  the 
stranger,  and  to  ascertain  at  what  hotel  the  latter  was 
stopping.  Immediately  they  separated  he  called  at  the 
hotel  in  question  and  left  his  card,  so  that  the  stranger 
would  be  impressed  with  his  new-found  friend.  Then  the 
next  morning  about  eight  o'clock  a  messenger  would  come 
in  great  haste  with  a  note  from  the  swindler,  which  ran 
about  like  this : — 

"  Dear  Sir  : — I  regret  to  inform  you  that  I  have  been 
run  over  by  an  omnibus,  and  while  I  was  insensible  my 
pocket  was  picked  of  all  the  money  I  had  about  me.     You 


198  nOAV  TO   TRA^'EL. 

may  not  be  aware  that  in  this  country  a  man  who  gets  run 
over  is  fined  for  being  in  the  way ;  I  am  at  the  police-sta- 
tion of  the  1 2th  arrondisement,  and  they  refuse  to  let  me 
go  till  I  pay  fifty  francs.  As  I  cannot  draw  money  at  my 
banker's  at  this  hour  of  the  morning,  I  venture  to  ask  a 
favor  of  you.  I  beg  that  you  will  oblige  me  by  sending 
fifty  francs  by  the  bearer,  and  as  soon  as  the  banks  open 
I  will  go  to  my  banker's  and  get  the  money  to  return  to 
you  immediately.  You  can  expect  me  a  few  minutes  past 
ten  o'clock,  and  I  shall  hope  to  find  you  in.  In  case  you 
are  gone  out  I  will  leave  the  money  with  the  concierge." 

The  appeal  was  so  reasonable  that  many  a  stranger  was 
taken  in.  The  swindler  endeavored  to  keep  out  of  the 
way  of  his  victim,  but  if  met  and  interrogated  he  always 
declared  that  he  left  the  money  with  the  concierge,  and 
the  latter  had  doubtless  pocketed  it.  He  thrived  for  a 
while,  but  at  length  the  gentle  but  firm  hand  of  the  police 
was  laid  upon  him,  and  he  was  forced  to  emigrate.  The 
Continental  police  are  apt  to  interfere  with  schemes  of 
this  sort,  and  an  enterprising  man  has  little  chance  among 
them. 

The  only  successful  traveler  without  money  is  of  the 
class  usually  designated  as  the  "tramp."  He  has  in- 
creased in  numbers  in  the  last  few  years  till  there  is  alto- 
gether too  many  of  him ;  so  much  is  this  the  case  that  sev- 
eral of  the  state  legislatures  have  been  compelled  to  pass 
laws  for  his  suppression,  and  thus  his  operations  have 
been  greatly  curtailed.  But  in  the  states  where  no  laws 
have  been  made  against  him  he  flourishes  in  all  his  glory; 
he  generally  lives  well  by  begging  at  kitchen  doors,  or  at 
houses  along  the  country  roads,  and  he  is  satisfied  with 
lodgings  in  a  barn  or  under  a  haystack.  In  summer  he 
traverses  the  country-,  and  in  winter  the  cold  drives  him  to 
the  city,  where  he  stays  till  the  trees  bud  and  blossom 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  199 

again,  and  the  robin  sings  in  the  orchards.  Then  he  re- 
turns again  to  the  country,  and  so  he  goes  on  from  year  to 
year,  unwilling  to  accept  honest  employment,  and  giving 
no  equivalent  for  his  support.  It  is  his  evident  impres- 
sion that  the  world  owes  him  a  living,  and  the  only  duty 
devolving  upon  him  is  to  collect  the  debt. 

During  the  World's  fair  at  Paris  in  1867,  one  of  the 
London  papers  published  a  scheme  whereby  a  man  could 
spend  three  days  at  the  Exposition  for  50  francs.  It  was 
something  like  the  following  : — 

fr.  c. 
Lodging  three  nights  at  3  francs  per  night,  .  .  9  00 
Breakfast  three  days  at  a  Duval  restaurant,  at  i  fr. 

50  c 4  50 

Omnibus  to  Exposition,  at  50  c i  50 

Admission  to  Exposition,  I  fr.  daily,  .  .  .300 
Lunch  and  glass  of  beer,  2  fr.  50  c.  daily,  .  •  7  50 
Return  from  Exposition,  same  as  going  there,  .  i  50 
Dinner,  with  wine,  at  Duval  restaurant  or  Table  d' 

Hote,  4  fr.  daily, 12  00 

Theatre  in  the  evening  (gallery),  3  fr.,  .  .  .  9  00 
Extras, 2  00 

Total, 50  QO 

A  Paris  paper,  a  few  days  later,  made  an  improvement 
on  the  above,  and  showed  how  a  man  could  spend  three 
days  at  the  Exposition  for  nothing.  This  is  the  way  it 
was  done : — 

Lodging  three  nights  at  police  stations,  00  per  night,  00 
Breakfast  at  hydrant,  three  times,  00  each  time,  .     00 

Ride  to  Exposition  by  hanging  on  steps  of  omnibus,  00 
Admission,  make  a  bundle  of  your  coat  and  enter  as 

an  exhibitor, po 


200  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

Lunch,  similar  to  breakfast  with  addition  of  samples, 
obtained  in  the  alimentary  section  of  the  Ex- 
position,          00 

Return  same  way  as  going, OO 

Dinner  at  hydrant  with  remains  of  lunch,  .         .    oo 

Theatre   in  evening,   beg  a  check   from   somebody 

leaving, =        .    oo 

Total, -    .        .        .00 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  cheaper  system  than  this, 
though  it  is  on  record  that  once  during  a  period  of  steam- 
ship opposition  between  San  Francisco  and  Oregon,  the 
Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  advertised  a  free  pas- 
sage and  a  chromo  to  anybody  who  wished  to  make  the 
voyage.  A  hundred  or  more  of  the  impecunious  ones  of 
San  Francisco  thought  it  would  be  a  good  opportunity  to 
go  to  Oregon  and  back  for  nothing,  and  have  a  week's 
board,  and  so  they  took  passage.  Nothing  was  said 
about  the  return;  the  opposition  company  made  terms 
with  the  Pacific  Mail  just  as  the  steamer  reached  Port- 
land, and  the  old  rates  of  fare  were  at  once  established. 
The  majority  of  the  tourists  had  great  difficulty  in  getting 
home  again,  and  some  of  them  became  permanent 
residents  of  the  region  to  which  they  had  unintentionally 
emigrated. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

SKELETON    TOURS     FOR    AMERICA    AND 
EUROPE. 

It  is  well  to  have  your  route  laid  out  beforehand  when 
you  start  on  a  pleasure  tour,  at  least  in  a  general  way,  so 
that  you  can  approximate  the  necessary  time  and  money 
for  the  journey.  To  facilitate  the  traveler's  plans  a  few 
skeleton  routes  will  be  given,  together  with  an  estimate  o£ 
the  time  necessary  for  a  rapid  journey  to  cover  them. 
It  should  not  be  understood  that  the  routes  given  em- 
brace a  tenth  or  a  twentieth  of  those  that  exist;  any 
railway  or  steamship  agent  can  give  you  dozens  or  per- 
haps hundreds  of  routes  of  travel,  and  after  you  think 
the  subject  is  exhausted  you  can  easily  find  a  rival 
agent  who  can  give  you  a  selection  from  many  more. 
The  lines  of  travel  that  are  here  laid  out  are  intended 
to  embrace  the  chief  cities  of  Europe  and  America, 
together  with  the  principal  pleasure-resorts.  The  traveler 
will  pay  his  money  and  take  his  choice,  or  rather  he  will 
take  his  choice  and  then  pay  his  money. 

The  American  tours  take  New  York  as  a  starting  and 
also  as  a  returning  point,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  it  is 
the  largest  city  of  America.  For  the  European  tours 
London  or  Liverpool  will  be  taken  as  the  terminal  points, 
since  nine-tenths  of  the  Americans  who  visit  Europe  land 
at  Liverpool  and  proceed  thence  to  London  with  more  or 
less  directness. 

Any  one  of  the  American  routes  can  be  covered  in  from 
--r-  -  -  (201) 


202  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

one  to  two  months,  with  a  sufficient  amount  of  time  for 
seeing  enough  to  satisfy  an  ordinary  tourist.  This  does 
not  allow  for  a  stay  of  a  week  or  more  at  each  of  two  or 
three  points,  but  only  for  a  visit  of  sufficient  length  for 
doing  the  necessary  sight-seeing,  and  a  very  little  more. 
As  there  are  no  antiquities  in  American  cities,  and  com- 
paratively few  stock  sights,  a  tour  of  a  given  number  of 
miles  or  places  will  take  less  time  than  a  similar  tour  in 
Europe.  A  few  hundred  years  hence  we  may  be  able 
to  point  to  ancient  buildings  and  ruins  around  which 
cluster  many  historical  associations,  but  at  present,  to  use 
a  Hibernianism,  all  our  antiquities  are  modern. 

"Without  further  preliminary  the  following  routes  are 
presented  ■ — 

New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington, 
L}Tichburg,  Charlotte,  Atlanta,  Montgomery,  Mobile,  New 
Orleans.  The  Mississippi  River,  passing  Baton  Rouge, 
Port  Hudson,  Natchez,  Vicksburg,  Memphis,  and  Cairo 
to  St  Louis  ;  rail  via  Springfield  to  Chicago  and  back  to 
New  York  by  Detroit  and  Niagara  Falls. 

New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  ^Vashington, 
L}-nchburg,  Danville,  Charlotte,  Atlanta,  Montgomery, 
Mobile,  New  Orleans.  The  Mississippi  River,  passing 
Natchez,  Vicksburg,  Memphis,  and  Cairo ;  thence  on  the 
Ohio  River,  passing  Evansville  and  Louisville  to  Cin- 
cinnati, and  back  to  New  York,  by  Pittsburg  and 
Altoona. 

New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  \Vashington,  Nor- 
folk, day  steamer  on  the  James  River  to  Richmond,  Gor- 
donsville.  Goshen  (for  Natural  Bridge),  White  Sulphur 
Springs,  Kanawha  Falls,  Huntington,  steamer  on  the 
Ohio  River  to  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Springfield,  Chicago, 
through  the  Lakes  to  Buffalo,  Niagara  Falls,  Toronto,  the 
Thousand   Islands   and   Rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  203 

Montreal,  Lake  Champlain,  Lake  George,  Saratoga,  Rut- 
land, Boston,  Springfield,  Hartford,  New  Haven,  and  New 
York. 

New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Washington,  Cin- 
cinnati, St.  Louis,  Springfield,  Chicago,  rail  or  steamer 
through  the  Lakes  to  Buffalo,  Niagara  Falls,  Toronto, 
the  Thousand  Islands  and  Rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Montreal,  rail  or  boat  to  Quebec,  Gorham,  stage  to  Glen 
House,  Summit  of  Mount  Washington,  Crawford  House, 
Fabyan  House,  Bethlehem,  Profile  House,  rail  to  Con- 
cord, Nashua,  and  Boston,  and  Sound  steamboat  to  New 
York. 

None  of  the  routes  thus  given  will  carry  the  traveler 
farther  west  than  St.  Louis.  The  tourist  who  wishes  to 
extend  his  journey  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to  Utah,  or  to 
the  Pacific  Coast  will  be  pretty  certain  to  make  either  St. 
Louis  or  Chicago  his  point  of  departure,  and  therefore 
we  will  make  up  our  routes  from  those  cities.  From  St. 
Louis  we  can  go  as  follows  : — 

St.  Louis,  Kansas  City,  Denver,  Cheyenne,  Ogden,  Salt 
Lake  City,  Virginia  City,  Sacramento,  and  San  Francisco, 
where  we  pause  to  consider  the  sights  of  California. 
These  include  the  wonderful  Yosemite  Valley,  the  North 
Pacific  Coast  Railway  through  the  Redwood  forests,  the 
Geysers,  and  the  wine-growing  regions  of  Sonoma,  and 
other  valleys  north  of  San  Francisco  Bay. 

From  San  Francisco  we  can  go  to  Oregon,  either  over- 
land or  by  steamship;  in  either,  case  we  arrive  at  Port- 
land, whence  a  journey  may  be  made  up  the  Columbia 
River  and  back  again.  As  this  book  goes  to  press  there 
is  no  satisfactory  route  for  reaching  the  East  except  by 
returning  to  San  Francisco,  but  in  a  few  years  it  will  be 
possible  to  ride  in  railway  carriages  from  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Columbia  to  St.  Paul,  in  Minnesota, 


204  now  TO  TRAA-EL. 

and  thence  through  the  states  of  the  Northwest  to 
Chicago. 

Suppose  we  go  back  from  Oregon  to  San  Francisco  and 
are  ready  to  return  to  the  East.  We  may  go  as  we  came 
as  far  as  Cheyenne,  and  thence  to  Omaha,  where  we  have 
the  choice  of  four  routes  to  Chicago.  Or  we  may  turn  to 
the  southward,  over  the  Southern  Pacific  Railway,  which 
will  carr}-  us  to  Los  Angeles,  and  thence  to  Yuma,  by  way 
of  the  Desert,  where  at  one  point  we  are  266  feet  below  the 
level  of  the  sea.  From  Yuma  the  route  is  eastward  over 
the  dry  plains  of  Arizona,  and  among  the  mountains  to 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  thence  through  New  Mexico  and 
along  the  valley  of  the  Arkansas  to  Kansas  City.  From 
the  latter  point  there  is  a  bewildering  choice  of  railways 
to  St.  Louis  or  Chicago. 

The  majority  of  tourists  would  doubtless  prefer  going 
by  one  route  and  returning  over  the  other.  In  case  you 
take  the  northern  route  for  the  westward  journey  Chi- 
cago would  be  the  best  point  of  departure,  while  if  the 
southern  route  is  chosen  the  start  should  be  made  from 
St.  Louis.  In  either  instance  Denver  and  the  mining  and 
grazing  regions  of  Colorado  may  be  visited  by  a  detour — 
by  the  northern  route  from  Cheyenne,  and  by  the  southern 
from  Pueblo. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  Europe.  The  voyage  over  the 
Atlantic  will  occupy  about  ten  days  each  way,  and  there- 
fore three  weeks  should  be  added  to  all  the  estimates  of 
time  in  the  following  tours.  And  as  before  stated  the 
time  allowed  for  the  tour  itself  is  only  what  would  give  a 
hurried  view  of  each  place,  and  the  objects  of  interest 
along  the  route.  If  the  tourist  wishes  to  go  leisurely  he 
should  double  the  figures,  and  he  will  not  be  far  out  of 
the  way.  Or  he  may  add  50  per  cent,  with  the  knowledge 
that  he  is  just  avoiding  a  "  rush  "  through  the  country. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  205 

A  tour  of  twenty  days  may  be  made,  embracing  the 
following  cities  : — 

Liverpool,  Glasgow  or  London,  Antwerp,  Rotterdam, 
The  Hague,  Amsterdam,  Utrecht,  Cologne,  The  Rhine, 
Wiesbaden,  Brussels,  Paris,  Rouen,  Dieppe,  Brighton, 
London,  Glasgow,  Liverpool  or  London. 

One  of  forty  days  will  include  most  of  the  foregoing, 
and  also  Strasburg,  Basle,  Luzerne,  Brunig  Pass,  Interlaken, 
Berne,  Lausanne,Villeneuve,  Martigny,  Chamouny,  Geneva, 
Macon,  Dijon,  Paris,  and  back  to  point  of  departure  in 
England. 

One  of  sixty-five  days,  embracing  England,  France, 
Italy,  Austria,  Germany,  and  Belgium,  will  include  Liver- 
pool, Glasgow  or  London,  Dover,  Calais,  Paris,  Macon, 
Mt.  Cenis  Tunnel,  Turin,  Genoa,  Leghorn,  Rome,  Naples, 
Florence,  Venice,  Verona,  the  Austrian  Tyrol,  Innspruck, 
Munich,  Salzburg,  Vienna,  Prague,  Dresden,  Berlin, 
Hanover,  Cologne,  Brussels,  Antwerp,  London  or 
Liverpool. 

One  of  about  the  same  time,  and  embracing  England, 
Belgium,  the  Rhine,  Germany,  Bavaria,  Italy,  Switzerland, 
and  France,  will  take  the  tourist  through  Antwerp,  Brus- 
sels, Cologne,  the  Rhine,  Mayence,  Heidelberg,  Stuttgart, 
Munich,  Lake  Constance,  Coire,  the  Splugen  Pass,  Colico, 
Lake  Como,  Bergamo,  Verona,  Venice,  Florence,  Rome, 
Leghorn,  Pisa,  Genoa,  Turin,  Milan,  Arona,  the  Simplon 
Pass,  Brieg,  Martigny,  Chamouny,  Geneva,  Lausanne, 
Berne,  Thun,  Interlaken,  the  Brunig  Pass,  Lucerne, 
Basle,  Paris,  and  thence  to  Great  Britain  for  the  return  to 
America. 

One  of  sixty  days  will  embrace  England,  France,  Italy, 
and  Switzerland,  and  will  include,  London,  Paris,  Dijon, 
Macon,  the  Mt.  Cenis  Tunnel,  Turin,  Genoa,  Pisa,  Rome, 
Naples,  Florence,  Venice,  Verona,  Milan,  Como,  Lugano, 
St.  Gothard  Pass,  Andermatt,  Lucerne,  Interlaken,  Berne, 
Neuchatel,  Pontarlier,  Paris,  London  or  Liverpool. 

Leaving  out  Italy  the  tour  can  be  made  in  thirty  days, 
as  follows  : — London,  Paris,  Troyes,  Mulhausen,  Basle, 
Lucerne,  the  Bernese  Oberland,  Interlaken,  Berne,  Frei- 
burg, Lausanne,  Geneva,  Macon,  Dijony  Paris,  London, 
Glasgow  or  Liverpool. 


206  now  TO  TRAVEL. 

The  list  may  be  extended  indefinitely  ;  enough  has  been 
given  to  show  the  possibilities  of  travel,  so  as  to  visit  the 
most  of  the  countries  of  Central  and  Southern  Europe. 
For  the  probable  cost  the  reader  is  referred  to  preceding 
pages  of  this  volume,  where  the  expense  of  travel  is  set 
down  as  nearly  as  it  can  be  estimated.  But,  as  before 
stated,  no  general  rule  can  be  made,  and  the  cost  of  a 
journey  will  depend  very  largely  upon  the  tastes  of  the 
traveler,  and  his  financial  ability  to  gratify  them. 

The  American  who  visits  Europe  for  the  first  time  is 
apt  to  be  in  a  hurry,  and  to  endeavor  to  see  too  much. 
He  will  very  likely  return  with  a  confused  notion  of  his 
experiences,  and  will  be  obliged  to  refer  to  his  note-book 
to  know  what  he  has  done.  Instances  have  occurred  of 
tourists  who  could  not  tell  whether  St.  Paul's  Cathedral 
was  in  London  or  Rome,  and  who  had  a  vague  impression 
that  the  tomb  of  Napoleon  was  beneath  the  Arc  de 
Triomphe.  They  told  of  the  wonderful  wood-carving  to 
be  seen  at  Venice,  and  thought  that  Michael  Angelo, 
John  Titian,  and  Sir  Christopher  Wren  were  among  the 
most  famous  painters  Switzerland  had  ever  produced. 
They  ascended  the  Volcano  of  Mount  Blanc  from  Vienna, 
and  had  a  delightful  view  of  the  eternal  snows  of  Vesu- 
vius from  their  hotel  windows  at  Berlin ;  where  they  also 
visited  Trajan's  column,  and  the  Falls  of  Schaffhausen. 
In  short  they  came  back  with  things  decidedly  mixed,  and 
all  from  making  their  journey  too  quickly. 

Moral— Don't  be  in  a  hurry. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

GENERAL    DIRECTIONS,    WITH     ROUTES, 

DISTANCES,  ETC.,  FOR  A  JOURNEY 

ROUND    THE    WORLD. 

If  stout  old  Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  first  navigator  to 
sail  around  the  globe,  could  appear  on  earth  to-day,  he 
would  be  quite  justifiable  in  standing  transfixed  with 
astonishment.  The  announcement  that  he  could  encircle 
our  sphere  in  less  than  eighty  days  would  be  too  much  for 
his  equanimity,  when  he  reflected  that  the  voyage  in  the 
Elizabeth,  from  Plymouth  back  to  Plymouth  again,  con- 
sumed nearly  two  years,  and  compelled  him  to  cross  the 
Equator  no  less  than  four  times.  The  performance  of 
the  modern  steamship  would  be  likely  to  bewilder  him, 
and  he  could  scarcely  comprehend  the  transit  of  the 
American  Continent  in  a  single  week.  From  New  York 
to  Omaha,  without  change  of  cars  or  clothes,  would  be 
beyond  his  understanding,  and  from  Omaha  to  San  Fran- 
cisco in  a  Pullman  car  would  appear  to  his  old-fashioned 
mind  like  the  work  of  the  magician.  There  is  good  rea- 
son to  believe  he  would  not  be  thankful  that  he  had  been 
awakened  from  his  sleep  of  three  centuries.  To  the  ques- 
tion, *'  What  would  Admiral  Drake  say  if  he  were  alive 
now  ?"  the  historic  Irishman  might  respond,  "  He  would 
say  he's  glad  he's  dead!" 

From  the  two  years  required  for  the  circumnavigation 
of  the  globe  in  the  time  of  Sir  Francis,  the  progress  down 

(207) 


208  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

to  our  day  was  not  very  rapid.  For  two  hundred  years 
after  that  eventful  voyage  of  the  Elizabeth,  there  was  little 
if  any  reduction  in  the  time  for  a  similar  cruise,  though 
there  was  a  material  diminution  in  the  profits  to  be  derived 
from  semi-piratical  adventures  along  the  route.  The 
brave  old  Admiral  made  his  enterprise  remunerative  in  a 
high  degree,  both  to  his  government  and  himself ;  the 
courts  are  said  to  be  troubled  at  the  present  day  about  the 
rightful  ownership  of  some  dozens  of  millions  which 
belonged  originally  to  the  estate  of  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
and  have  increased  through  the  operations  of  time  and  the 
tables  of  simple  and  compound  interest. 

There  was  a  glorious  uncertainty  about  the  voyages  of 
Sir  Francis  Drake  and  Captain  Cook  that  exists  no  longer. 
It  was  a  problem  if  ever  those  navigators  should  return ; 
and,  in  the  case  of  Captain  Cook,  the  solution  was  not  to 
the  satisfaction  of  that  enterprising  explorer  and  his 
friends.  But,  setting  aside  the  ordinar\-  uncertainty  of 
human  affairs,  a  voyage  of  circumnavigation  to-day  is  no 
more  problematic  than  a  trip  from  New  York  to  Chi- 
cago. A  man  may  start  for  a  journey  around  the  world, 
and  fix  almost  to  a  day  the  date  of  his  return.  On  the 
third  day  of  July,  1877,  the  writer  sailed  from  San  Fran- 
cisco for  Japan,  China,  India,  and  other  Eastern  coun- 
tries, intending  to  return  by  way  of  Europe.  A  friend 
was  at  the  dock  to  see  him  off,  and,  as  they  shook  hands 
in  farew^ell,  the  latter  said : 

"  I  am  going  to  Paris  next  spring  ;  when  will  you  meet 
me  there  ? " 

The  outward-bound  voyager  thought  a  moment,  and 
then  said  :  "  I'll  meet  you  in  Paris  on  the  15th  of  April." 

And  so  they  separated,  one  to  go  west,  and  the  other,  a 
few  months  later,  to  go  east. 

On  the  evening  of  the  14th  of  April  the  first-mentioned 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  209 

tourist  landed  at  Marseilles,  and  the  next  day  he  was  at 
Paris  ;  his  friend,  who  had  been  notified  by  telegraph,  was 
at  the  station  to  meet  him,  and  the  meeting,  as  we  see,  was 
exactly  on  the  day  appointed.  A  traveler  can  arrange  his 
time  with  absolute  certainty,  if  he  will  take  the  trouble  to 
study  the  tables  of  the  steamship  and  railway  lines,  and 
determine  the  period  of  his  detention  in  each  city  and 
country  along  his  route.  And  this  is  precisely  what  was 
done  in  the  instance  above  mentioned. 

A  man  in  New  York  thinks  nothing  of  making  a  business 
appointment  for  a  week  from  to-day ;  he  is  going  to  Chi- 
cago in  the  meantime,  but  will  be  back  on  the  date  he 
names.  It  is  just  as  feasible  for  him  to  say,  "  It  is  now 
the  13th  of  June ;  I  must  go  to  Hong  Kong  for  a  little 
business  which  will  keep  me  a  couple  of  days,  and  the 
movements  of  the  steamers  are  such  that  I  shall  lose  a  day 
and  a  half  waiting  there  when  my  business  is  ended.  If 
you  will  call  at  my  office  at  noon  on  the  24th  of  August, 
we  will  go  to  lunch  and  talk  this  matter  over  j  I  really 
haven't  time  to  attend  to  it  to-day.  I  may  possibly  have 
to  go  to  Calcutta ;  if  so,  ni  telegraph  you,  and  weHl  make 
the  appointment  hold  over  till  the  i8th  of  September,  as  I 
shall  arrive  by  the  steamer  of  the  17th.  Good-day ;  I  leave 
by  this  evening's  train." 

Year  by  year  the  travel  around  the  world  increases,  and 
doubtless  it  will  continue  to  increase  as  people  become 
familiar  with  the  requirements  of  time  and  money  for  the 
journey. 

A  ticket  around  the  world  can  be  bought  at  a  price  vary- 
ing from  one  thousand  to  twelve  hundred  dollars,  accord- 
ing to  the  line  of  steamers  chosen  for  certain  parts  of  the 
route,  and  whether  one  passes  through  India  or  adheres 
to  the  steamer  from  Singapore  to  Suez.  The  time  re- 
quired is  from  three  months  upward,  according  to  the 
14 


210  now   TO   TRAVEL. 

abilities  of  the  traveler  to  spare  it,  and  the  amount  of 
money  at  his  disposal.  The  old  adage,  that  time  is  money, 
is  nowhere  more  applicable  than  on  the  journey  around 
the  world.  You  can't  have  a  good  time  unless  you  have 
the  money  to  pay  for  it,  and  you  can't  have  a  good  time 
with  your  money  unless  you  have  time  enough  to  spend 
it  properly. 

"  How  much  does  it  cost  to  go  around  the  world.-"'  is 
as  difficult  to  answer  as  "  How  much  does  a  horse  cost  ?  " 
One  man  will  get  along  with  a  quarter  of  what  another 
will  consider  absolutely  necessary,  and  can  live  luxuri- 
ously on  what  will  starve  another.  Tastes  and  ways 
differ  in  travel  as  in  anything  else,  and  an  exact'  rule 
cannot  be  set  for  everybody.  A  youth  who  has  not  learned 
by  practical  experience  the  value  of  a  dollar,  who  indulges 
in  ways  of  living  more  or  less  riotous,  and,  above  all,  who 
occasionally  whiles  the  weary  hours  at  the  seductive  game 
of  poker  with  chance  travelers,  will  require  a  liberal  allow- 
ance to  enable  him  to  make  the  circuit  of  the  world  in 
what  he  would  call  "  style."  This  allowance  might  be 
anywhere  from  five  or  six  thousand  dollars  upward,  and 
would  probably  leave  occasional  souvenirs  in  the  shape  of 
unpaid  bills,  which  are  altogether  too  numerous  at  pres- 
ent for  the  reputation  of  our  countrymen.  But  to  the 
man  of  unwasteful  habits,  who  knows  the  worth  of  his 
money,  and  quietly  makes  up  his  mind  to  have  it,  who 
uses  his  eyes  and  his  brains,  finds  what  is  proper  to  pay 
in  each  instance,  and  then  pays  it,  the  journey  can  be 
made  in  ten  months,  at  an  expenditure  of  about  four 
thousand  dollars.  Ten  months  will  allow  for  sufficient 
stoppages  along  the  route,  and  the  sum  mentioned  will 
enable  him  to  travel  first-class  on  all  ships,  and  stop  at 
first-class  hotels — if  the  majority  of  the  caravansaries  in 
the  East  can   be   called   first-class.     Generally  the  only 


now  TO  TKAVEL.  211 

features  about  them  that  warrant  that  name  are  their  bills. 
The  traveler  can  also  purchase  a  fair  allowance  of  inex- 
pensive "  curios,"  as  souvenirs  of  his  tour,  without  going 
beyond  the  last-named  figures. 

If  ladies  are  of  the  party  the  expenses  will  be  a  trifle 
more  than  where  it  consists  entirely  of  the  sterner  sex. 
Ladies  need  have  no  hesitation  in  attempting  the  tour  of 
the  world ;  they  might  even  go  unaccompanied  by  gentle- 
men, but  it  is  not  advisable  for  them  to  do  so.  Hotels  are 
to  be  found  everywhere  on  the  great  routes  of  travel,  and 
even  on  some  of  the  by-ways  there  is  passable  accommo- 
dation. In  the  tropics  where  the  heat  is  so  great  as  to 
compel  passengers  to  sleep  on  deck  when  going  from  one 
port  to  another,  one  side  of  the  deck  is  reserved  for  ladies 
and  the  other  is  allotted  to  the  men. 

It  is  not  advisable  for  a  traveler  to  buy  his  ticket  at 
once  for  the  entire  journey,  but  to  take  it  in  sections  as 
he  goes  along.  From  New  York,  or  any  other  American 
city,  to  Yokohama  is  enough  for  the  first  section ;  beyond 
Yokohama  the  routes  divide,  and  your  movements  depend 
upon  circumstances  wjiich  generally  are  not  easy  to  fore- 
see. Therefore,  when  you  have  determined  to  buy  a 
ticket  around  the  world,  buy  it  as  you  go  along,  and  not 
all  in  a  lump. 

The  best  way  of  going  around  the  world  from  America 
is  by  going  westward.  The  seasons  can  be  taken  more 
easily  in  their  natural  course  in  this  way  than  by  going 
eastward,  and  each  country  on  the  route  can  be  seen  in  the 
best  time  for  seeing  it.  The  monsoons  can  be  taken  in  a 
favoring  direction,  and  the  typhoons,  those  scourges  of 
the  Eastern  waters,  can  be  avoided.  From  May  to  July 
is  the  best  time  for  leaving  San  Francisco — not  earlier 
than  the  first  of  May,  and  not  later  than  the  first  week  of 
July.     This  will  give  the  summer  months  in  Japan,  the 


212  HOW  TO  tra\t:l. 

autumn  for  China  and  Siam — if  the  latter  country  is  in- 
cluded— and  the  winter  for  Java,  the  Straits,  Ceylon,  and 
India.  By  the  end  of  February  one  should  leave  India, 
spend  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks  in  Egypt,  and  then  go  on  to 
Europe.  He  can  land  in  Naples  late  in  March  or  early  in 
April,  and  then  go  north  with  the  season  till  he  reaches 
that  Mecca  of  the  wanderer — Paris.  Thence,  if  he  does 
not  possess  the  ingenuity  to  find  his  way  home,  he  has 
traveled  to  very  little  purpose  ;  whether  he  will  be  anxious 
to  find  his  way  home  from  Paris  at  an  early  date  depends 
largely  upon  circumstances — and  upon  Paris. 

It  is  advisable  for  the  intending  traveler  to  have  his 
finances  so  arranged  that  he  will  run  no  risk  of  being 
stranded  penniless  in  some  Eastern  port,  and  compelled 
to  wait  till  a  remittance  reaches  him.  A  letter  of  credit 
for  the  whole  amount  needed  on  the  journe}-  is  the  best 
thing  to  have ;  but  if  this  is  not  attainable,  he  should  carry 
a  credit  for  at  least  half  the  amount,  and  arrange  for  re- 
mittances in  sterling  drafts  on  London  to  meet  him  at 
points  previously  designated.  These  should  be  forwarded 
in  duplicate  in  registered  letters,  and  by  different  mails,  so 
that  a  loss  of  one  will  not  be  likely  to  mean  the  loss  of 
both.  And  in  order  to  take  these  registered  letters  from 
the  post-office,  and  for  other  purposes  of  identification, 
ever}'  traveler  should  carry  a  passport. 

In  taking  out  a  letter  of  credit,  be  sure  and  have  it  from 
a  house  that  has  correspondents  in  fhe  principal  cities  and 
the  open  ports  of  the  East.  The  same  precaution  should 
be  observed  relative  to  drafts  that  may  be  forwarded  to 
meet  the  traveler  at  any  of  the  points  he  is  to  touch ;  and 
he  should  not  conclude  that  because  he  is  personally  cog- 
nizant of  the  high  standing  of  a  banking-house,  it  will  be 
all  right  wherever  he  goes.  A  draft  made  by  a  well-known 
house  in  New  York,  on  the  Barings  of  London,  reached 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  213 

the  writer  in  Singapore  ;  when  he  proceeded  to  turn  it  into 
cash  he  was  surprised  to  find  that  nobody  in  Singapore 
had  ever  heard  of  the  makers  of  the  draft,  and  if  he  had 
been  without  introductions,  and  had  had  no  letter  of  credit 
in  reserve,  he  would  have  been  in  a  very  awkward  predic- 
ament. Too  much  precaution  cannot  be  observed  about 
one's  means  of  obtaining  money  in  the  far  East ;  and  to 
be  stranded  on  the  other  side  of  the  world  without  cash 
is  very  inconvenient. 

We  will  suppose  you  have  equipped  yourself  with  the 
necessary  letter  of  credit ;  the  next  thing  is  to  have  a  suit- 
able frame  of  mind  for  the  journey,  and  the  next  a  light 
and  properly  garnished  trunk.  The  frame  of  mind  is  an 
important  consideration.  If  you  are  a  morose,  ill-tem- 
pered brute,  determined  to  see  nothing  good  in  any  coun- 
try but  your  own,  you  had  better  stay  at  home ;  and  if  a 
friend  has  arranged  to  travel  with  you,  it  would  be  an  act 
of  kindness  to  advise  him  to  drop  you  and  go  with  some 
one  else,  or  alone. 

Arrange  your  time-table  as  nearly  as  possible  before 
starting,  and  then  tell  your  friends  where  letters  will  reach 
you.  Have  them  sent  to  the  principal  post-offices — Yok- 
ohama, Hong  Kong,  Singapore,  Calcutta,  Bombay,  etc. — 
according  to  the  dates  you  expect  to  be  in  those  cities, 
and  when  you  are  about  leaving  those  places  you  can  in- 
struct the  post-master  as  to  your  subsequent  address.  If 
you  do  so  your  mail  matter  will  be  forwarded,  and  with 
proper  care  you  will  be  pretty  certain  to  get  all  your  let- 
ters. Do  not  have  newspapers  sent  after  you,  as  they  are 
not  very  likely  to  turn  up  on  account  of  the  accumulating 
postage. 

As  to  baggage,  you  don't  want  a  large  amount  to  start 
with.  A  couple  of  ordinary  suits  of  clothing,  and  a  dress- 
suit  for  dinners,  will  be  the  basis  j  remember  that  the  dress- 


214  HOW   TO   TRAVEL. 

suit  is  indispensable,  as  its  absence  will  sometimes  deprive 
you  of  the  pleasure  of  attending  an  interesting  ceremonial, 
and  that  a  gentlemen  in  the  East,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  is 
expected  to  wear  an  evening  garb  when  invited  to  dinner. 
A  light  overcoat  should  be  taken,  and  a  heavy  one  for 
rough  work ;  the  latter  should  be  of  coarse  but  strong  ma- 
terial, and  will  often  come  handy  at  sea  when  storms  are 
blowing,  and  on  land  when  the  owner  is  compelled  to 
camp  out  or  travel  through  severe  weather.  A  rug  or 
shawl  may  be  taken,  if  one  has  a  fancy  for  it,  but  it  is  not 
at  all  necessary,  as  the  stout  overcoat  supplies  its  place, 
and  serves  the  additional  purposes  of  an  overcoat.  Take 
the  same  underclothing  that  you  would  take  for  a  six  weeks' 
trip  an\"vvhere  in  the  States ;  when  your  stock  is  exhausted 
you  can  buy  a  fresh  supply  in  any  of  the  ports  or  inland 
cities  of  the  East,  particularly  the  former.  Clothing  of  all 
kinds  is  as  cheap  in  Hong  Kong,  Shanghai,  Yokohama, 
Singapore,  Calcutta,  Bombay,  or  the  other  great  ports,  as 
in  New  York,  and  in  some  of  the  cities  I  have  mentioned 
it  is  cheaper.  It  would  be  well  to  have  your  shirt-maker 
get  you  up  a  dozen  shirts  of  a  kind  specially  adapted  to  the 
journey,  and  if  you  are  inclined  to  be  a  "  swell,"  you  might 
take  two  or  three  dozen.  Have  them  made  of  the  strong- 
est muslin  you  can  find ;  pay  no  attention  to  fineness,  but 
a  great  deal  to  strength.  The  front,  or  "bosom,"  may  be 
as  fine  as  you  please,  but  I  wouldn't  be  too  particular 
about  it ;  as  to  the  rest,  the  nearer  you  can  come  to  sail- 
cloth or  sheet-iron  the  better. 

The  laundress  in  the  far  East  is  invariably  a  man,  and, 
to  judge  by  the  way  he  knocks  your  clothing  to  pieces,  he 
must  be  the  strongest  man  in  the  community.  He  is  na- 
tive and  to  the  manner  born,  and  his  manner  is  not  at  all 
pleasing.  In  Yokohama,  and  other  Japanese  cities,  he  is, 
of  course,  a  Jap  ;  in  China,  he  is  the  "  wanchee-washee  " 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  315 

man,  with  whom  San  Francisco  and  New  York  are  famil- 
iar ;  in  Java,  he  is  a  Malay,  and  in  India  he  is  a  Bengalee. 
No  matter  which  one  you  have  first,  you  will  think  he  is 
worse  than  any  of  the  others  can  possibly  be,  and  when 
you  try  the  others  you  will  find  that  your  first  love  was 
the  mildest  of  them  all.  The  Bengalee  is  the  worst  of 
the  lot  for  destructiveness,  but  he  is  only  an  infinitesimal 
distance  ahead  of  the  Chinese. 

The  Eastern  way  of  washing  is  to  pound  the  garments 
with  a  club,  when  clubs  are  handy,  but  as  they  are  gener- 
ally out  of  the  way,  and  firewood  is  dear,  the  artist  con- 
tents himself  with  laying  your  shirts  and  other  things  on  a 
stone,  and  pounding  them  with  another  stone  ;  and  the 
rougher  these  two  geological  products  are,  the  better  for 
his  purpose. 

Three  or  four  washings  will  generally  make  an  end  of 
handkerchiefs ;  shirts  and  other  garments  may  survive  a 
sixth  or  eighth  journey  to  the  lavatory,  but  the  tenth  or 
twelfth  will  usually  send  them  to  the  rag-bag.  Therefore 
I  advise  that  all  underlinen  should  be  of  the  strongest  ma- 
terial, and  fineness  a  secondary  consideration. 

When  you  reach  Yokohama  you  will  probably  want  to 
buy  some  clothing  suitable  for  the  warm  climate  of  the 
East.  A  sola  topee,  or  sun-hat,  is  the  first  requisite  ;  it  is 
made  of  pith,  has  a  white  cover  which  can  go  to  the  wash 
every  few  days,  and  an  internal  arrangement  so  that  the 
wearer's  head  is  constantly  cooled  by  the  air  which  circu- 
lates around  it.  Then  you  will  want  some  suits  of  white 
linen,  about  ten  of  them,  which  will  cost  you  from  five  to 
six  dollars  a  suit ;  a  couple  of  suits  of  blue  serge,  at  ten  or 
twelve  dollars  each.  These,  with  your  ordinary  clothing, 
will  be  sufficient  for  your  wants,  if  you  exercise  proper 
care  in  keeping  close  at  the  heels  of  the  washman ;  you 
will  generally  find  that   your  washing  will  be   promptly 


216  now  TO  TEAVEL. 

done,  but  it  is  always  best  to  have  an  extra  provision  laid 
up  for  a  rainy  day.  In  the  East  everybody  carries  a  goodly 
amount  of  baggage,  and  as  there  is  always  a  plentiful  sup- 
ply of  porters,  and  the  allowance  of  the  steamship  com- 
panies is  liberal,  you  need  not  mind  the  addition  of  a  trunk 
or  two. 

Well,  we  are  off  from  New  York ;  we  are  not  in  a  fright- 
ful hurry,  and  are  determined  to  see  as  much  as  we  can 
for  our  time  and  money. 

The  transcontinental  trains  between  New  York  and  San- 
Francisco  are  a  daily  affair  each  way,  and  the  regular  time 
of  running  through  is  seven  days.  The  price  of  a  ticket 
varies  according  to  the  harmony,  or  the  lack  of  it,  between 
the  Eastern  roads ;  $140  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  average 
for  the  through  ticket,  with  an  addition  of  $25  or  $30  for 
sleeping-coaches  and  meals. 

From  San  Francisco,  the  departures  are  semi-monthly 
for  Japan  and  China  ;  the  steamers  of  the  Pacific  Mail  and 
Occidental  and  Oriental  Companies  perform  the  service 
alternately,  so  that  each  line  sends  a  ship  ever}'  month. 
They  were  formerly  in  opposition,  but  are  now  working 
harmoniously ;  a  passage-certificate  bought  of  the  one  is 
good  on  the  ships  of  the  other,  and  there  is  nothing  to 
choose  between  them,  so  far  as  the  comfort  of  the  voyage 
is  concerned.  The  running  time  to  Yokohama  is  about 
twenty  days,  and  no  matter  what  the  ship  or  which  the 
company  that  the  traveler  patronizes,  he  is  pretty  certain 
to  be  pleased  with  his  fare  and  treatment.  A  ticket  from 
San  Francisco  to  Yokohama  costs  $250,  and  if  bought  in 
New  York  it  entitles  the  passenger  to  an  allowance  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  baggage  overland,  instead  of 
the  ordinary  allowance  of  one  hundred  pounds. 

After  the  "  globe-trotter,"  as  the  tourist  is  called  in  the 
East,  has  done  with  Yokohama,  Tokio,  and  the  eastern 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  217 

part  of  the  empire,  he  can  take  a  steamer  any  Wednesday 
afternoon  for  Hiogo,  which  is  the  port  of  Osaka  and  Kioto. 
This  is  a  voyage  of  a  day  and  a  half ;  and  when  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  empire  has  been  seen,  another  steamer  may 
be  taken  to  Shanghai,  passing  through  the  famous  inland 
Sea  of  Japan,  and  halting  at  Simoneseki  and  Nagasaki. 
The  line  is  weekly  each  way,  and  is  known  as  the  Mitsu 
Bishi  (Three  Diamonds) ;  it  is  a  Japanese  organization, 
sustained  by  a  government  subsidy  in  the  shape  of  a  mail 
contract,  and  its  ships  are  mostly  of  American  build.  Old 
travelers  on  the  line  between  New  York  and  San  Fran- 
cisco by  the  Isthmus  route  will  find  an  acquaintance  in  the 
steamer  New  York,  transformed  to  the  "  Tokio  Martt** 
and  the  Oregonian  to  the  "  Nagoya  Maru ";  the  Golden 
Age  is  the  "  Maru  "  something  or  other,  and  so  are  several 
of  the  former  vessels  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Company.  A 
ticket  from  Yokohama  to  Shanghai  costs  ^45,  and  it 
makes  no  difference  whether  you  buy  it  through  or  in  sec- 
tions. There  are  chance  steamers  at  frequent  and  irregu- 
lar intervals,  that  carry  passengers  at  a  reduced  rate,  but 
they  are  less  comfortable  than  the  Mitsu  Bishi  Company's 
boats,  and  more  uncertain.  The  crews  of  the  Mitsu  Bishi 
steamers  are  Japanese,  the  waiters  in  the  cabin  are  Chi- 
nese, and  the  captains,  officers,  engineers,  and  stewards, 
are  Americans,  English,  or  some  other  Caucasian  nation- 
ality. When  the  equipage  of  one  of  these  steamers  is 
drawn  up  for  inspection,  the  affair  is  emphatically  tcne  re- 
vue des  deux  mondes. 

From  Shanghai  one  can  ascend  the  Yang-Tse  as  far  as 
Hankow,  a  distance  of  a  trifle  over  six  hundred  miles,  and 
there  are  boats  of  the  China  Merchants'  company  every 
three  or  four  days.  The  price  of  a  ticket  varies  ;  it  was 
once  j^400  each  way,  but  at  the  time  of  my  visit  to  Shang- 
hai it  had  fallen  to  ^18,  in  consequence  of  an  opposition 


218  now  TO  TRA-S-EL. 

by  an  English  company.  It  was  the  intention,  as  soon  as 
the  opposition  ended,  to  raise  it  again  to  $<^o,  where  it 
probably  now  is.  The  steamers  are  large  and  comforta- 
ble, and  the  table  is  excellent. 

The  China  Merchants'  Company  has  a  weekly  line  to 
Tien-Tsin,  whence  one  may  go  overland  to  Pekin,  a  dis- 
tance of  ninety  miles.  There  is  said  to  be  a  smooth  way 
of  the  world  and  a  rough  one  ;  where  the  smooth  one  may 
be  I  will  not  attempt  to  say,  but  there  is  little  doubt  that 
the  rough  one  is  the  stretch  of  ninety  miles  between 
Tien-Tsin  and  Pekin.  About  two  thousand  years  ago  the 
road  was  built,  and  it  has  never  been  repaired  since  the 
contractors  left  it;  it  was  made  of  large  and  irregular 
boulders,  badly  laid  down,  with  no  attempt  at  evenness, 
and  has  been  a  good  deal  damaged  by  old  Tempus  Edax 
Rerum  in  the  twenty  centuries  that  he  has  been  gnawing 
at  it. 

You  can  make  the  journey  to  Pekin  on  horseback,  by 
cart,  or  by  a  mule-litter,  or  you  can  go  on  foot.  For  a 
vigorous  man,  the  saddle  is  recommended ;  for  a  more 
luxurious  one,  the  mule-litter ;  for  a  brave  and  small  one, 
the  cart;  and  a  man  who  has  a  touch  of  the  walking 
mania  can  try  pedestrianism.  The  mule-litter  is  a  box 
like  a  covered  chair,  slung  on  a  couple  of  poles ;  these 
poles  are  long  enough,  and  just  far  enough  apart,  to  serve 
as  shafts  for  two  mules — one  in  front  and  the  other  in  the 
rear — and  are  suspended  over  the  saddles  of  the  beasts  by 
stout  straps.  The  pace  is  not  unpleasant,  and  the  move- 
ment would  soon  become  monotonous  were  it  not  that  the 
suspensory  apparatus  is  constantly  giving  way,  and  letting 
the  box  to  the  ground  with  a  general  shaking  up  as  the 
result.  Occasionally  the  mules  run  away,  indulge  in  kick- 
ing-matches,  or  otherwise  disport  themselves  in  ways  more 
or  less  exciting ;  so  that  the  traveler  is  in  no  danger  of 
perishing  with  enmii. 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  219 

The  Chinese  cart  is  a  small  box  on  a  single  pair  of 
wheels ;  it  is  not  long  enough  for  an  average  man  to  lie 
down  in,  and  too  low  for  him  to  sit  erect.  The  occupant 
is  doubled  up  very  much  as  if  he  were  in  a  wine-cask ;  the 
cart  has  no  springs,  but  the  body  rests  directly  on  the  axle, 
so  that  every  jolt,  however  small,  is  felt  by  him.  When 
all  these  facts  are  considered,  in  connection  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  road,  it  will  be  readily  seen  that  a  traveler 
who  journeys  from  Tien-Tsin  to  Pekin  in  a  Chinese  cart, 
feels,  on  arrival,  very  much  as  though  he  had  been  passed 
through  a  patent  clothes-wringer. 

There  is  another  route,  via  Tung-Chow.  A  Chinese 
boat  is  taken  to  the  latter  point,  which  is  twelve  miles 
from  the  capital ;  the  usual  way  is  to  go  to  Pekin  by  the 
road,  and  return  by  Tung-Chow  and  the  river.  In  this 
way  the  current  favors,  and  the  descent  can  be  made  in  a 
couple  of  days,  while  the  ascent  takes  four  or  five. 
Few  travelers  to  Pekin  fail  to  visit  the  Great  Wall, 
which  is  about  a  hundred  miles  northwest  of  the  city. 
Saddle-horses  and  mule-litters  are  the  modes  of  convey- 
ance, and  the  most  of  the  provisions  which  you  expect 
to  consume  on  the  journey  must  be  taken  along.  The 
journey  from  Shanghai  to  Pekin  and  back  again  will 
require  about  a  month  in  time,  and  ^400  in  money, 
including  the  visit  to  the  Great  Wall. 

Brief  allusion  has  been  made  to  the  steam  lines  in 
the  far  East  on  another  page.  A  more  detailed  account 
will  be  given  here. 

From  Shanghai  to  Hong  Kong  there  is  a  weekly  ser- 
vice, which  is  performed  alternately  by  the  Peninsular 
and  Oriental  Steam  Navigation  Company  (English),  and 
the  Compagnie  Messageries  Maritimes  (French).  These 
lines  are  usually  called  the  "  P.  and  O.,"  and  the  "  French 
Mail,"  and  it  may  be  roundly  stated  that  they  run  from 


220  now   TO  T]iA\'EL. 

England  and  France  to  China  and  Japan.  One  week 
there  comes  the  P.  and  O.  boat,  and  the  next  the  French 
Mail,  and  so  they  go  on  alt^nately  each  way  weekly,  year 
after  year.  The  fares  are  about  the  same,  but  the  French 
line  includes  wine  in  the  price  of  passage,  which  the  Eng- 
lish does  not.  As  far  as  I  could  observe,  the  French 
steamers  are  the  most  comfortable,  their  table  is  better, 
and  there  is  more  civility  on  the  part  of  the  officers.  It 
is  noticeable  that  the  majority  of  the  passengers  on  the 
French  steamers  are  English,  and  I  have  known  English- 
men who  were  intensely  patriotic  in  other  matters  to 
delay  their  departure  a  week  to  go  on  a  French  ship 
instead  of  an  English  one. 

The  itinerary  of  the  P .  and  O.  Line  from  Shanghai 
to  Southampton  touches  the  following  ports : — Hong 
Kong,  Singapore,  Penang,  Pointe  de  Galle,  Aden,  Suez, 
Port  Said,  Alexandria,  Malta,  and  Gibraltar.  There  are 
branch  lines  between  Hong  Kong  and  Yokohama,  Singa- 
pore and  Batavia,  (Java,)  Pointe  de  Galle  and  Australia, 
Pointe  de  Galle  and  Calcutta,  Aden  and  Bombay,  and 
Alexandria  and  Brindisi.  The  French  route  is  from 
Shanghai  to  Hong  Kong,  Saigon,  Singapore,  Pointe  de 
Galle,  Colombo,  Aden,  Suez,  Port  Said,  Naples,  and  Mar- 
seilles, with  branches  between  Hong  Kong  and  Yoko- 
hama, Singapore  and  Batavia,  Pointe  de  Galle  and  Cal- 
cutta, Aden  and  the  Mauritius.  Both  lines  receive  a 
heavy  subsidy  from  their  respective  governments  in  the 
form  of  mail  contracts,  and  they  do  a  great  deal  to  maintain 
English  and  French  prestige  throughout  the  East.  For 
several  years  the  P.  and  O.  had  a  virtual  monopoly  of  the 
business,  and  looked  with  disdain  upon  the  efforts  of  the 
French  to  enter  the  field.  But  not  only  did  the  French 
Line  establish  itself,  but  other  lines  have  sprung  up,  and 
manage  to  flourish  without  the  advantage  to  be  gained 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  '         231 

from  a  contract  for  carrying  the  mails.  There  is  one 
known  as  the  "Holt  Line,"  which  performs  a  semi- 
monthly service  each  way  between  England  and  China ; 
and  there  are  numerous  irregular  steamers  in  addition,  so 
that  there  is  no  lack  of  communication  between  the  Occi- 
dent and  the  Orient. 

The  rates  of  fare  in  the  East  are  decidedly  high,  when 
we  compare  them  with  the  price  of  passage  over  the 
Atlantic  and  on  the  seaboard  lines  of  the  United  States. 
From  Yokohama  or  Shanghai,  by  the  English  line,  to 
Southampton,  or  to  Marseilles  by  the  French  one,  the 
fare  is  ^^105,  or  $525  in  round  figures.  The  local  fares 
are  higher  than  this  in  proportion.  It  is  $63  from  Shang- 
hai to  Hong  Kong — a  run  of  three  days  ;  and  |ioS  from 
Singapore  to  Pointe  de  Galle — a  voyage  of  five  days.  To 
Java,  by  the  branch  line  from  Singapore,  a  voyage  of 
exactly  forty-eight  hours,  requires  a  disbursement  of  ^46. 
You  will  save  about  20  per  cent,  on  your  fare  by  purchas- 
ing a  through  ticket ;  but,  as  already  hinted,  the  saving 
is  accompanied  by  a  restriction  of  one's  movements 
that  more  than  balances  the  advantage  in  the  re- 
duction. 

At  the  agencies  in  the  East  they  do  not  assign  you 
to  a  room  on  the  steamer  when  you  buy  your  ticket, 
but  tell  you  that  you  will  get  it  from  the  steward  when 
you  go  on  board.  They  give  as  a  reason  for  this  the 
impossibility  of  knowing  what  rooms  are  reserved,  as 
the  tickets  are  generally  bought  before  the  ship  arrives 
in  port,  and  before  there  is  any  communication  between 
the  purser  and  the  agent.  This  excuse  will  not  hold  good 
at  the  beginning  point  of  the  voyage,  and  so  they  plumply 
tell  you  that  it  is  not  their  custom  to  assign  the  rooms 
except  on  board,  and  they  can  make  no  deviation  from 
their  rules.      Generally  the  ships  are  not  crowded,  and  so 


223  HOW  TO  TRA\'EL, 

the  custom  works  well  enough ;  in  case  of  a  rush  of  pas- 
sengers it  also  works  admirably — for  the  company.  The 
agent  can  continue  to  sell  tickets  to  all  applicants  and 
assure  them  that  there  is  abundance  of  room,  although  he 
knows  that  he  has  sold  twice  or  three  times  the  capacity 
of  the  steamer.  The  ship  that  performs  the  branch  ser- 
vice for  the  French  company  between  Singapore  and 
Batavia  has  accommodations  in  her  cabin  for  sixteen  per- 
sons^-eight  rooms,  with  two  berths  in  each  room.  The 
agent  at  Singapore  blandly  assured  the  wTiter  that  there 
were  ver\-  few  passengers  engaged,  and  he  would  be  cer- 
tain to  have  a  room  to  himself — when  all  the  time  more 
than  forty  passengers  were  booked,  and  the  agent  had  the 
list  in  his  possession.  It  may  be  impolite  to  say  he  lied, 
but  he  certainly  was  not  mathematically  exact.  When 
the  steamer  sailed  she  had  fifty-two  passengers,  and  they 
were  packed  like  negroes  on  a  slave-ship.  Of  course  there 
was  much  grumbling,  but  the  officers  of  the  steamer 
referred  the  matter  to  the  agent — whose  fault  it  was  ;  and 
the  agent  was  safe  on  shore,  and  out  of  reach  of  the  angry 
travelers. 

Two  things  are  necessary  to  one's  comfort  in  traveling 
on  steamers  in  the  tropical  EdiSt—/>q/amas,  and  a  bamboo 
chair.  A  pajama  suit  consists  of  a  loose  sack  and  drawers 
of  the  Chinese  pattern,  and  nearly  every  foreigner  in  the 
East  adopts  them,  in  place  of  the  night-shirt  of  civiliza- 
tion, for  sleeping  purposes.  They  may  be  of  muslin,  silk, 
grass-cloth,  or  anything  else  that  suits  the  wearer's  fancy 
— some  prefer  one  thing  and  some  another,  and  there  is 
no  way  of  harmonizing  tastes.  Any  Chinese  tailor  can 
make  you  a  pajama  suit  at  a  few  hours'  notice ;  and  if 
you  would  be  comfortable,  you  will  order  half  a  dozen 
suits  at  least. 

Around  the  hotels  and  on  board  ship  it  is  perfectly  en 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  223 

r^gle  to  be  in  pajamas  between  the  hours  of  9  p.  m.  and  8 
A.  M.;  and  on  the  steamer  it  is  interesting  to  observe  how 
universally  the  passengers  avail  themselves  of  the  permis- 
sion. Through  the  tropics,  it  is  generally  too  hot  to  sleep 
below ;  nearly  everybody  takes  to  the  deck  and  makes  it 
his  home  by  day  and  by  night.  The  reclining  chair  comes 
in  play  here,  as  it  can  serve  as  a  bed  for  most  persons,  and 
at  any  rate  it  is  a  capital  lounge.  It  can  be  bought 
very  cheaply  in  all  the  Eastern  ports,  and  no  traveler's 
equipment  is  complete  without  it.  And  the  man  who  neg- 
lects to  provide  himself  with  pajamas  in  the  first  port  he 
reaches  will  have  reason  to  regret  his  action.  He  might 
even  do  a  more  unwise  thing  than  purchase  a  supjDly  be- 
fore he  leaves  San  Francisco,  provided  the  Chinese  have 
not  all  gone  thence  before  he  reaches  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  hours  for  meals  vary  somewhat  on  the  different 
lines,  but  may  be  taken  as  resembling  in  general  the 
hours  on  the  transatlantic  ships,  with  the  exception  that 
they  are  fewer.  As  soon  as  you  rise  you  can  have  a  pre- 
liminary coffee  or  tea,  or  you  may  have  it  before  you  rise, 
if  it  so  please  you.  Then  from  eight  to  ten  you  have 
breakfast,  which  consists  of  omelets,  meat  of  two  or  three 
kinds,  and  curry,  the  latter  being  universal  and  perennial. 
Somewhere  between  noon  and  i  p.  m.  there  is  a  cold  lunch 
with  fruit,  and  at  5  P.  M.  comes  dinner.  This  is  not  much 
unlike  the  steamship  dinner  of  other  parts  of  the  world, 
except  that  the  curry  comes  up  warm  and  smiling  on  every 
occasion,  and  is  eaten  by  nearly  everybody.  Few  people 
like  it  when  they  first  eat  it,  and  few  people  eat  it  half  a 
dozen  times  without  acquiring  a  taste  for  it  that  is  akin  to 
love.  It  is  conceded  that  curry  is  necessary  to  keep  the 
liver  in  a  proper  condition  of  activity,  and  the  man  who 
does  not  eat  it  is  very  liable  to  find  himself  out  of  order 
internally  in  a  very  short  time.     It  is  surprising  that  such 


224  now  TO  traat:l. 

a  warm  substance  as  curry  should  be  the  proper  thing  in 
a  hot  climate  ;  but  the  weight  of  testimony  is  emphatically 
in  its  favor,  and  we  should  respect  the  verdict  of  time  and 
experience. 

There  is  no  pleasanter  steamship  life  anywhere  than  in 
the  East,  so  far  as  the  associations  are  concerned.  The 
brainless  idiots  that  add  a  pang  to  existence  on  the  trans- 
atlantic voyage  are  rarely  seen  so  far  away  from  home  as 
the  coast  of  China ;  the  majority  of  the  people  you  meet 
there  are  the  possessors  of  at  least  a  fair  amount  of  intelli- 
gence, and  know  how  to  use  it.  Among  twenty  passen- 
gers on  a  steamer,  you  will  find  three  or  four  globe-trot- 
ters, like  yourself ;  as  many  merchants  ;  as  many  clerks 
and  other  employes  of  Eastern  houses  ;  two  or  three  men 
who  have  been  or  still  are  in  the  consular  or  diplomatic 
service  ;  a  banker  or  two  ;  two  or  three  soldiers  of  fortune 
who  have  been  serving  one  of  the  Oriental  governments  in 
one  way  or  another;  and  the  balance  will  be  made  up  of 
nondescripts,  who  cannot  be  classed  in  any  regular  list. 
If  there  are  any  of  the  gentler  sex,  they  will  be  the  wives, 
widows,  sisters,  or  daughters  of  men  who  have  been  mak- 
ing a  home  in  the  East;  and  you  will  occasionally  en- 
counter some  of  them  who  have  made  a  dozen  voyages 
back  and  forth,  and  know  ever)-  wave  of  the  sea  along  the 
route.  The  great  majority  of  the  passengers  are  sure  to 
have  had  sufficient  attrition  against  the  world  to  wear 
away  their  rough  corners  ;  you  will  find  them  social  with- 
out forwardness,  and  communicative  without  being  gar- 
rulous. 

If  the  traveler  is  limited  in  time  and  money,  he  will 
avoid  the  north  of  China,  and  also  the  western  part  of 
Japan ;  he  will  proceed  direct  from  Yokohama  to  Hong 
Kong,  and  can  take  for  this  purpose  a  ship  of  either  of  the 
transpacific  lines  or  of  the  English  or  French  mail  com- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  225 

panics.  The  former  are  preferable,  as  the  fare,  when 
combined  with  that  from  San  Francisco,  is  lower,  and  the 
steamers  are  larger  and  better  than  the  English  or  French 
mail-packets.  From  Hong  Kong  one  can  go  daily  to  Can- 
ton (ninety  miles)  in  about  eight  hours ;  and  by  no  means 
should  a  tourist  omit  seeing  this  most  interesting  of  the 
cities  of  China.  From  Hong  Kong,  when  Canton  has 
been  finished,  the  regular  route  leads  to  Singapore — the 
English  steamers  going  direct,  and  the  French  ones  touch- 
ing at  Saigon.  Those  who  wish  to  leave  the  regular 
track  may  go  to  Siam  by  steamers  that  leave  every  week 
or  ten  days,  and,  though  of  English  build  and  ownership, 
are  managed  by  a  Chinese  agency,  and  carry  their  cargoes 
on  Chinese  account.  They  are  nominally  freight-steam- 
ers, but  have  accommodations  for  a  few  passengers  ;  and 
the  same  is  the  case  with  the  steamers  that  will  take  the 
tourist  from  Bangkok  to  Singapore  when  his  visit  to  Siam 
is  concluded.  h 

From  Singapore  you  may  make  a  detour  to  Java  or  Ma- 
nila, but  eventually  you  will  find  your  way  back  again,  since 
all  the  routes  of  the  East  lead  by  this  point,  as,  anciently, 
all  roads  led  to  Rome.  If  you  have  a  month  to  spare  when 
south  of  the  equator,  you  may  make  a  circular  trip  on  a 
Dutch  steamer  that  goes  to  all  the  principal  ports  of  Java 
and  the  Spice  Islands,  and  comes  around  in  the  end  to  her 
starting-point.  When  back  in  Singapore,  and  ready  to  go 
on  to  the  westward,  you  have  choice  of  two,  or,  rather,  of 
three  routes  :  you  can  go  by  mail-steamer  to  Ceylon,  and 
stop  at  Galle,  whence  you  proceed  by  land  to  Colombo, 
and  Kandy ;  you  can  go  to  Calcutta  direct ;  or  you  may 
go  to  Calcutta  by  a  steamer  that  halts  at  Malacca,  Penang, 
and  Moulmein  a  day  each,  and  two  days  at  Rangoon.  This 
indirect  voyage  consumes  seventeen  days,  but  it  is  full 
of  interest.  The  direct  voyage  to  Calcutta  requires  six 
days.  15 


226  now  TO  travel. 

If  you  do  India  by  way  of  Ceylon,  you  will  finish  the 
land  of  spicy  breezes,  where  only  man  is  vile,  and  then 
cross  from  Colombo  to  Tuticorin,  whence  you  can  go  by 
rail  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  great  Indian  peninsula ; 
or  you  may  take,  once  a  week,  a  ship  of  the  British  India 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  which  makes  the  voyage  to 
Calcutta  in  fourteen  days,  touching  at  Madras  and  a  dozen 
other  ports.  As  the  ship  is  usually  halted  in  the  daytime 
and  moving  at  night,  this  mode  of  traveling  is  not  at  all 
unpleasant.  From  Calcutta  the  railway  will  bear  us  to 
the  north,  and  we  can  see  Benares,  Agra,  Cawnpore,  Luck- 
now,  Allahabad,  Delhi,  Jeypoor,  and  other  cities,  arriving 
eventually  at  Bombay. 

Six  weeks  will  serve  for  seeing  India,  or,  rather,  that 
part  of  it  in  the  Bengal  and  Bombay  presidencies,  and 
very  few  who  have  done  the  country  will  care  to  return. 

The  distance  from  Bombay  to  Calcutta,  by  the  direct 
route,  is  1,409  miles,  and  the  fare  (first-class)  about  $60. 
Benares  and  Allahabad  are  the  only  cities  of  importance 
that  lie  on  the  direct  line  ;  the  others  are  reached  by 
branches,  and  it  will  require  another  thousand  miles  of 
travel  to  take  them  in. 

We  will  suppose  we  have  finished  with  India,  and  are 
ready  to  leave  Bombay  for  Egypt  and  Europe.  The  P.  & 
O.  Company  sends  a  weekly  steamer,  and  its  departure  is 
fixed  for  Saturday  during  the  prevalence  of  the  southwest 
monsoon,  and  for  Monday  when  the  monsoon  is  not  blow- 
ing. There  is  another  weekly  service,  formed  by  the  Hall 
Line  and  the  Anchor  Line,  making  fortnightly  departures 
alternately.  There  is  an  Italian  line  and  an  Austrian  line, 
each  monthly,  and  there  are  numerous  irregular  steamers, 
so  that  four  departures  a  week  may  be  fairly  counted 
upon.  The  fares  vary  considerably ;  the  P.  &  O.  charges 
$250  to  carry  you  to  Suez,  3,000  miles :  the  Italian  line 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  227 

/ 
will  take  you  there  for  $i6o;  the  Anchor  and  Hall  Imes 
for  ^155,  and  the  Austrian  for  ^150.  Patronage  appears 
to  be  fairly  divided  among  the  lines ;  those  who  have 
plenty  of  money,  together  with  a  great  many  who  have 
not,  go  by  the  P.  &  O.  ships,  while  others  who  are  more 
matter-of-fact,  and  do  not  care  to  keep  up  appearances, 
select  the  cheaper  lines. 

To  irascible  bachelors,  the  voyage  from  Bombay  west- 
ward has  a  lively  terror.  From  February  to  May  the 
steamers  are  crowded  with  children  and  their  nurses  on 
their  way  to  England,  and,  no  matter  what  ship  you  take, 
you  cannot  avoid  them.  Like  the  poor,  they  are  always 
with  you,  and  cannot  be  shaken  off  ;  very  often  the  num- 
ber of  juvenile  passengers  equals  that  of  the  adults,  and 
on  occasions  painfully  frequent  it  is  greater.  From  rosy 
morn  till  dewy  eve,  and  from  eve  till  morn  again,  they 
make  things  the  reverse  of  monotonous,  and  a  passionate 
lover  of  infantile  ways  has  all  the  entertainment  he  desires. 
Selfish  and  irreverent  travelers  are  apt  to  think  affection- 
ately of  King  Herod,  and  wonder  if  his  like  will  ever  be 
seen  again. 

This  migration  of  children  is  for  the  reason  that  they 
lose  health,  and  generally  their  lives,  if  kept  in  India 
beyond  the  age  of  four  or  five  years.  The  spring  and 
early  summer  are  considered  the  best  time  for  them  to 
arrive  in  Europe,  and  consequently  the  traveler  at  this 
season  finds  the  steamers  filled  with  them.  They  are 
mostly  of  the  spoiled  class,  accustomed  to  have  their  own 
way,  to  receive  the  attentions  of  a  multitude  of  servants, 
and  to  resent  with  anger  the  least  attempt  to  thwart  them. 
The  companies  would  doubtless  find  it  to  their  profit  to 
send  an  occasional  steamer  at  higher  rates,  from  which 
children  should  be  excluded,  just  as  our  transatlantic  lines 
advertise  ships  carrying  no  steerage  passengers,  and 
charge  more  for  places  thereon. 


238  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

In  Egypt,  one  can  go  directly  through  the  canal,  and 
thence  to  Europe,  or  he  may  land  at  Suez,  go  by  rail  to 
Cairo  (eight  hours),  and  when  he  has  done  with  Cairo  he 
may  go  in  four  hours  to  Alexandria,  where  he  will  find 
three  or  four  steamers  a  week  for  Brindisi,  Naples,  Mar- 
seilles, and  England,  and  steamers  at  least  once  a  week 
for  Syria,  Palestine,  Asia  Minor,  Constantinople,  the 
Black  Sea,  and  also  for  Greece  and  the  Adriatic.  He 
may  take  his  time  in  Europe,  and  get  home  the  best  way 
he  can. 

Following  is  a  table  of  distances  of  a  journey  around 
the  world,  without  taking  into  account  the  numerous 
detours,  which  will  vary  according  to  the  tastes  and  means 
of  each  traveler,  and  the  time  he  has  allotted  to  himself 
for  his  personal  gratification,  either  in  the  pursuit  of  plea- 
sure, science  and  art,  or  commerce  : — 

Neut  York  to  San  Francisco,  3450  miles ;  San  Fran- 
cisco to  Yokohama,  4,764 ;  Yokohama  to  Hong  Kong, 
1,620;  Hong  Kong  to  Singapore,  1,150;  Singapore  to 
Calcutta,  1,200;  Calcutta  to  Bombay,  i)409;  Bombay  to 
Aden,  1,664;  Aden  to  Suez,  1,308;  Suez  to  Alexandria^ 
250;  Alexandria  to  Marseilles,  1,300;  Marseilles  to 
Paris,  536;  Paris  to  London,  316;  London  to  Liver- 
fool,  205;  Liverpool  to  New  York,  3,000.  Total,  22,172 
miles. 

(Distances  by  rail  are  in  italics ;  by  sea  in  roman.) 
Separating  the  above  distance  into  land  and  sea  travel, 
we  have  6,166  miles  of  railway,  and  a  trifle  over  16,000 
miles  of  water.  Allowing  continuous  progress  at  the  rate 
of  twenty-five  miles  an  hour  on  land  and  twelve  miles  on 
the  water  we  could  swing  around  the  great  circle  inside 
of  sixty-seven  days.  And  if  we  take  the  quickest  journeys 
that  have  been  made  over  the  different  portions  of  the 
route — the  special  trains  that  have  passed  across  the 
Continent  on  two  or  three  occasions,  and  the  extraor- 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  229 

dinary  runs  of  steamers  on  the  Atlantic,  Pacific,  and 
Indian  Oceans,  and  in  the  China  and  Mediterranean 
Seas — add  them  together,  and  make  no  deductions  for 
delays  in  port,  we  can  have  a  theoretical  journey  around 
the  world  in  less  than  sixty  days.  Phileas  Fogg  is  left 
far  in  the  rear,  and  Jules  Verne  must  resume  his  pen  and 
make  another  trial,  if  he  would  really  astonish  us.  Give 
us  the  highest  recorded  speed  upon  railways  and  ocean 
steamers,  and  apply  it  to  the  route  in  question,  and  we 
will  put  a  girdle  around  the  earth  in  the  half  of  eighty 
days,  with  several  hours  to  spare. 


CHAPTER     XXV. 

LEGAL    RIGHTS    OF    TRAVELERS. 

For  the  information  contained  in  this  chapter  the 
author  is  indebted  to  a  well-known  la\v7er  of  New  York, 
who  has  had  considerable  experience  in  suits  of  individ- 
uals against  railway  and  steamship  companies,  and  is 
therefore  thoroughly  competent  to  write  on  the  subject. 

"  In  considering  the  legal  rights  of  travelers  it  is  neces- 
sary to  remember  that  they  are  not  the  same  in  all  coun- 
tries, nor  even  in  different  states  of  one  countr}-.  Legal 
right  in  England  may  not  be  legal  right  in  France  or  the 
United  States,  and  a  decision  of  a  court  in  New  York  may 
be  quite  opposed  to  one  in  a  case  exactly  similar  in  Ohio 
or  California.  I  will  endeavor  to  give  a  summary  of 
decisions  embodying  the  most  important  relations  of  the 
traveler  to  the  carrying  companies,  and  where  there  are 
two  cases  of  similar  character,  that  have  been  differently 
decided,  I  shall  prefer  the  one  from  the  higher  court. 

"One  of  the  most  frequent  causes  of  dispute  in  the 
United  States  is  the  time  for  which  a  ticket  is  valid.  It 
has  been  generally  held  that  a  ticket  for  a  single  trip  over 
a  railway  is  good  for  any  length  of  time,  with  the  under- 
standing that  when  the  journey  begins  it  shall  be  com- 
pleted in  a  continuous  ride.  This  applies  only  to  single 
tickets  over  the  road  of  one  company ;  when  the  ticket 
has  one  or  more  coupons  attached,  and  is  sold  at  a  lower 
rate  than  the  single  fares   would  amount  to  if   added 

(230) 


ilOW  TO  TRAVEL.  231 

together,  it  is  liable  to  be  refused  on  the  ground  that  it  is 
in  the  form  of  a  contract  that  expired  a  certain  number  of 
days  after  the  ticket  was  issued.  There  have  been  many 
decisions  on  this  subject,  the  majority  of  them  favoring 
the  claims  of  the  company  against  the  passenger. 

"An  excursion  or  round  trip  ticket,  sold  at  a  reduced 
rate,  is  held  to  be  a  contract,  and  is  worthless  if  not  used 
in  the  time  specified.  It  is  also  non-transferable,  if  so 
printed  on  the  face,  and  the  conductor  may  refuse  it  when 
offered,  on  the  return  trip,  by  any  person  other  than  the 
one  who  used  the  first  half.  The  theory  is  that  in  consid- 
eration of  the  reduced  rate  the  company  should  have  the 
benefit  of  any  chance  that  the  original  purchaser  does 
not  return  within  the  specified  time.  The  courts  of  most 
of  the  United  States,  and  also  those  of  England  and  the 
Continental  countries,  are  in  accord  on  this  subject. 

"A  ticket  marked  'good  for  this  day  only,'  or  'for  this 
train  only,'  was  formerly  held  to  be  good  for  any  day  till 
used,  but  of  late  years  the  majority  of  decisions  are  in 
favor  of  the  printed  limitation,  on  the  ground  that  the 
companies  have  a  right  to  regulate  their  business,  and 
that  they  must  know  how  many  people  are  to  travel  by  a 
train  in  order  to  make  it  up  properly.  But  in  this  case 
the  purchaser  of  a  ticket  may  have  his  money  returned 
provided  he  asks  for  it  before  the  departure  of  the  train, 
or  can  show  that  it  is  the  fault  of  the  company  that 
he  has  not  used  it. 

"In  regard  to  the  validity  of  a  ticket  in  the  reverse 
direction  from  what  it  reads,  there  have  been  several 
decisions  both  ways,  the  passenger  claiming  that  he  had 
paid  to  be  carried  a  given  number  of  miles  over  the  road 
and  he  had  a  right  to  travel  either  way,  as  he  chose.  A 
passenger  on  the  New  York  and  New  Haven  railway 
recovered  damages    for    injuries    received    while    being 


233  now  TO  TRA^^:L. 

ejected  from  the  cars,  but  it  required  a  law-suit  of  five 
years,  and  repeated  trials,  to  obtain  them.  He  had 
offered  a  ticket  from  New  Haven  to  New  Ygrk  while 
riding  in  the  reverse  direction,  and  was  put  off  in  conse- 
quence. In  another  instance  a  passenger  from  Boston  to 
Portland  sued  for  damages,  for  ejection  from  the  train 
when  he  offered  a  ticket  'from  Portland  to  Boston,'  and 
lost  his  case ;  and  the  majority  of  the  decisions  in  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States  favor  this  view  of  the 
subject. 

"  It  has  been  held  repeatedly  that  a  passenger  is  entitled 
to  a  seat,  and  cannot  be  required  to  give  up  his  ticket  until 
a  seat  is  provided,  though  he  must  show  it  if  asked.  A  pas- 
senger on  a  New  York  railway  found  no  seats  in  the  ordi- 
nary coaches  and  went  into  the  drawing-room  car  that 
formed  part  of  the  train.  When  called  on  for  the  extra 
charge  for  the  seat  he  refused  it,  but  announced  his  readi- 
ness to  return  to  the  ordinary  coaches  as  soon  as  a  place 
was  provided  for  him  there.  Thereupon  he  was  ejected 
by  the  porter,  and  he  brought  suit  against  the  railway 
company  for  damages.  The  latter  claimed  it  was  not  re- 
sponsible, as  the  drawing-room  car  was  the  property  of  a 
private  individual,  and  not  of  the  railway,  but  the  courts 
rejected  this  claim  and  gave  damages  to  the  passenger. 
Similar  decisions  have  been  made  in  several  cases  where 
railway  and  sleeping-car  companies  were  concerned,  the 
courts  holding  that  the  railways  are  responsible  for  the 
management  of  the  cars  that  compose  their  trains,  although 
they  may  not  o\vn  them.  This  principle  has  been  affirmed 
by  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  New  York,  and  by  the  Su- 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

"  It  was  formerly  held  that  a  conductor  must  allow  a  pas- 
senger to  ride  when  he  had  lost  his  ticket,  providing  he 
gave  reasonable  proof  of  having  purchased  one  before  en- 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  233 

tering  the  train,  but  of  late  years  the  courts  are  inclined 
to  the  opinion  that  it  is  the  passenger's  place  to  take  care 
of  his  ticket,  and  it  is  unfair  to  ask  the  conductor  to  hold 
a  court  of  inquiry  concerning  it.  Besides,  the  company 
has  no  protection  against  carrying  the  person  who  finds 
the  ticket.  In  Illinois  a  passenger  in  a  Pullman  car  lost 
his  ticket  after  showing  it  to  the  porter;  the  conductor 
came  around  before  the  train  started  and  demanded  the 
ticket,  or  its  equivalent,  and  refused  to  take  the  porter's 
word  about  it,  whereupon  the  passenger  went  to  the  ticket- 
office  and  procured  a  certificate  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
bought  a  ticket.  This  the  conductor  refused,  and  com- 
pelled the  passenger  to  ride  in  the  ordinary  coach  all 
night.  A  jury  gave  $3,000  damages  to  the  passenger,  but 
a  higher  court  said  this  amount  was  excessive,  and  the 
man  was  only  entitled  to  what  he  had  paid  for  the  ticket, 
and  moderate  compensation  for  the  inconvenience  of  be- 
ing deprived  of  a  place  in  the  sleeping-car. 

"  There  have  been  frequent  lawsuits  involving  the  rights 
of  persons  traveling  on  free  passes;  the  railway  pass 
usually  bears  on  its  back  a  printed  notice  that  '  the  person 
accepting  this  free  pass  thereby  assumes  all  risk  of  acci- 
dents,' etc.,  etc.  The  courts  have  generally  held  that  this 
notice  is  of  no  consequence,  and  the  holders  of  free 
passes  have  collected  damages  for  injury  to  their  persons, 
or  loss  of  property,  while  using  said  tickets.  The  theory 
is  that  the  pass  is  granted  for  some  consideration  which  is 
the  equivalent  of  the  money  that  would  be  required  to 
purchase  a  ticket  at  the  office,  and  therefore  the  company 
is  liable,  and  it  has  been  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court. 
Since  these  decisions,  some  of  the  railways  print  the  notice 
in  the  form  of  a  contract  or  agreement,  which  the  passen- 
ger signs  before  delivering  the  pass  to  the  conductor  ;  no 
suit  under  this  form  of  pass  has  been  reported,  and  the 


234  now  TO  travel. 

companies  think  they  could  not  be  mulcted  under  it,  as 
they  could  show  a  specific  agreement  on  the  part  of  the 
passenger  not  to  ask  for  damages  in  any  event.  A  tramp, 
or  other  person,  stealing  a  ride  on  a  train  has  no  redress 
for  damages,  nor  any  other  rights  which  the  company  is 
bound  to  respect. 

"Damages  have  been  recovered  in  several  instances  for 
injuries  received  in  railway  stations  before  the  intending 
passenger  had  entered  the  train,  or  even  purchased  a 
ticket,  and  they  have  also  been  recovered  for  injuries  re- 
ceived in  the  station  after  the  completion  of  the  journey. 
In  all  these  cases  it  was  shown  that  the  person  was  in  the 
station  either  for  the  intention  of  traveling,  or  after  the 
completion  of  the  journey,  and  in  one  case  where  the 
plaintiff  could  not  establish  this  fact  he  lost  his  case. 

*'  In  a  case  where  a  passenger  in  an  omnibus  was 
injured  by  the  upsetting  of  the  vehicle,  through  the 
driver's  carelessness,  damages  were  given  by  a  jurj-.  The 
omnibus  belonged  to  the  railway  company,  and  was  run 
by  them  between  the  station  and  neighboring  village. 
The  passenger  had  no  ticket,  as  tickets  were  only  sold  at 
the  station,  whither  he  was  going,  but  it  was  held  that  his 
journey  began  when  he  entered  the  company's  omnibus 
with  the  intention  of  traveling  by  the  railway. 

"  The  right  of  a  passenger  to  protection  from  drunken 
and  disorderly  persons,  and  from  ruffians  in  general,  has 
been  established.  The  courts  have  decided  that  the  com- 
pany through  its  agents  must  use  *  due  diligence '  for  the 
protection  of  peaceable  passengers,  and  unless  it  does  so 
it  is  liable.  A  good  illustration  is  that  of  a  railway  in 
Mississippi  where  some  rowdies  beat  a  passenger  severely, 
and  the  lattdr  sued  the  company  for  negligence.  It  was 
shown  that  the  conductor  simply  asked  the  rowdies  not  to 
get  him  into  trouble,  and  then  left  the  car ;  the  court  held 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  235 

that  the  company  was  liable  for  his  failure  to  use  due  dili- 
gence in  protecting  the  passenger,  and  gave  the  latter 
^6,000  damages,  but  if  the  conductor  had  stopped  the 
train,  and  called  the  brakemen  and  passengers  to  assist 
him,  the  damages  would  not  have  been  allowed,  even  if 
the  conductor  had  failed  in  his  effort  at  protection. 

"  Suits  have  arisen  out  of  the  loss  of  property  by  pas- 
sengers in  sleeping-cars,  and  in  most  instances  the  com- 
pany is  not  held  responsible,  as  it  is  not  a  common  car- 
rier, and  the  court  rules  that  it  is  the  passenger's  duty  to 
take  care  of  his  own  personal  valuables.  The  same 
rulings  have  been  made  in  several  cases  where  property 
has  been  lost  in  an  ordinary  passenger-car  and  suit  brought 
against  the  company,  the  courts  holding  that  when  a  man 
chooses  to  take  care  of  his  valise  or  hand-bag  it  is  not  in 
the  care  of  the  company.  So,  also,  in  instances  where 
passengers  have  been  robbed  while  on  railway  trains,  the 
courts  have  exonerated  the  companies,  except  where  abso- 
lute negligence  has  been  shown.  In  one  case  some  ruf- 
fians entered  a  car  and  robbed  a  passenger  of  $15,000  in 
U.  S.  bonds ;  the  courts  held  that  the  company  was  not 
responsible,  since  $15,000  was  altogether  too  large  an 
amount  of  valuables  to  be  carried  about  one's  person,  and 
before  the  company  was  to  be  held  liable  it  should  have 
been  notified,  and  the  property  intrusted  to  its  care. 

"  Responsibility  for  baggage  has  given  rise  to  a  great 
many  suits  on  the  part  of  passengers,  and  the  decisions 
are  numerous  and  varied.  In  general  it  is  held  that  a  pas- 
senger can  recover  for  the  loss  of  personal  property  such 
as  he  wishes  to  use  and  actually  needs  on  his  journey,  *in 
reasonable  amount.'  Most  of  the  railway  companies  in 
America  stipulate  on  their  tickets  that  the  passenger  is 
limited  to  one  hundred  dollars  in  value  and  one  hundred 
pounds  in  weight  of  baggage,  and  if  he  has  more  than  one 


236  HOW   TO  TBAYEL. 

hundred  dollars'  worth  he  must  declare  it,  and  pay  in  ad- 
dition at  the  rate  of  a  single  fare  for  every  five  hundred 
dollars  in  value.  Extra  trunks  are  usually  paid  for  by  the 
piece,  rather  than  by  the  weight  or  value,  and  checks 
given  accordingly. 

"  In  a  suit  growing  out  of  the  loss  of  baggage  the  pas- 
senger is  required  to  tell  the  contents  of  his  trunk,  and 
the  jury  must  decide  whether  the  missing  articles  be- 
longed properly  to  the  traveler's  outfit.  In  one  case  a 
man  lost  a  trunk  which  contained  his  'wardrobe.'  When 
he  stated,  which  he  did  very  reluctantly,  that  the  tnmk 
contained  sixteen  coats  of  different  sizes,  and  no  other  gar- 
ments, the  jury  thought  it  a  remarkable  wardrobe  for  a 
traveler,  and  he  lost  his  case.  Money,  watches,  and  jew- 
elry are  admitted  to  be  a  part  of  one's  baggage,  but  they 
must  be  carefully  packed,  and  not  excessive  in  amount. 
Discrimination  is  made  in  favor  of  money,  as  most  civil- 
ized nations  have  recognized  this  article  as  a  requisite  of 
travel.  Surgeons'  instruments,  law  books,  and  papers  for 
a  lawyer  going  to  attend  court,  dresses  of  actors  and  ac- 
tresses, uniforms  of  soldiers,  and  in  general  anything  that 
may  be  classed  under  the  head  of  '  tools  of  a  trade  or  pro- 
fession '  are  legitimate  baggage,  and  form  a  good  basis  of 
a  suit  for  damages  in  case  of  loss.  A  gambler  once 
brought  suit  for  the  loss  of  his  trunk,  which  contained  a 
roulette  table  and  other  paraphernalia  of  his  *  profession,' 
together  with  two  revolvers  and  a  bowie-knife.  The  court 
decided  against  him  on  the  ground  that  his  occupation  was 
contra  bo7ios  mores,  and  the  railway  company  could  not  be 
held  to  a  responsibility  for  anything  intended  to  demoral- 
ize the  community. 

"  Where  there  is  clear  proof  of  the  loss  of  a  trunk  a 
railway  company  will  generally  pay  without  litigation,  if 
the  claimant  is  a  person  of  respectability,  and  there  is  rea- 


now  TO   TRAVEL.  237 

son  to  believe  that  the  statement  of  contents  is  correct, 
provided  also  that  the  amount  claimed  is  not  enormous. 
It  is  better  for  the  company  to  pay  one  or  two  hundred 
dollars  in  a  genuine  case  than  to  go  to  the  courts,  where 
it  would  be  pretty  sure  to  be  defeated,  but  there  are  some 
companies  that  make  it  a  rule  never  to  pay  until  sued,  on 
the  ground  that  they  frighten  away  a  great  many  timid 
persons,  as  well  as  others  who  cannot  afford  the  time  for 
a  lawsuit. 

"A  famous  case,  involving  the  question  of  what  is 
necessary  to  one's  personal  comfort  on  a  journey,  is  that 
of  a  Russian  countess  against  the  New  York  Central 
railway.  One  of  her  trunks,  containing  laces  to  the  value 
of  $200,000,  was  opened  while  she  was  traveling  from  New 
York  to  Niagara  Falls,  and  about  200  yards  of  lace  were 
stolen.  It  was  antique  and  costly,  and  valued  at  $80,000; 
the  trunk  was  old  and  worn,  and  its  exterior  gave  no  indi- 
cation of  the  wealth  within.  The  Countess  sued  for  the 
value  of  the  lace,  and  the  company  defended  the  suit  on 
the  ground  that  the  lady  had  no  right  to  carry  such  prop- 
erty in  a  common  trunk,  and  that  it  was  her  duty  to 
inform  the  company,  through  its  agent,  the  baggage-mas- 
ter, of  the  value  of  the  trunk,  and  pay  the  proper  price  for 
its  insurance.  The  court  held  that  she  was  not  bound  to 
volunteer  information,  but  it  was  her  duty  to  answer  all 
proper  questions  concerning  her  baggage,  and  to  pay 
whatever  was  demanded  as  extra  freight.  But  as  nobody 
had  questioned  her  she  was  not  in  the  wrong ;  considering 
her  station  in  life  the  laces  were  necessary  to  her  comfort, 
and  she  was  awarded  $30,000  in  compensation  for  her 
loss. 

"  Suits  for  lost  baggage  are  far  less  common  in  Europe 
than  in  America.  They  generally  result  in  favor  of  the 
companies,  especially  where  two  or  more  are  concerned. 


2o8  now   TO   TRAA-EL. 

Between  Paris  and  London  losses  occur  from  time  to 
time,  and  when  the  passenger  seeks  redress  he  is  told  that 
he  must  show  whether  the  loss  took  place  in  France, 
England,  or  on  the  channel,  so  that  the  responsibility  can 
be  fixed.  Of  course  he  can  rarely  do  so ;  all  he  knows  is 
that  his  trunk  started  from  one  end  of  the  route  and  failed 
to  arrive  at  the  other ;  the  company  that  took  it  swears  it 
delivered  it  safely  to  the  other,  while  the  latter  swears  that 
it  never  received  it.  The  anlucky  passenger  gets  the 
worst  of  it,  and  the  matter  is  complicated  by  having  dif- 
ferent languages,  laws,  and  customs  to  contend  with.  The 
courts  generally  take  the  side  of  the  companies  by  throw- 
ing the  burden  of  proof  on  the  loser;  a  similar  juggle  is 
not  unknown  in  America,  as  the  patrons  of  freight, 
express,  and  transportation  lines  in  general  can  testify.  A 
parcel  or  a  box  will  be  lost  between  New  York  and  San 
Francisco  ;  the  shipper  holds  a  receipt  or  a  bill  of  lading 
from  the  company  to  whom  he  delivered  it  in  New  York, 
and  it  is  clearly  evident  that  he  can  know  nothing  about 
the  movements  of  his  property  after  it  left  his  hands.  But 
when  he  asks  for  redress  he  is  told  to  'prove  where  the 
loss  occurred  and  let  us  know  who  is  responsible.' 

"  Most  of  the  Continental  lines  of  railway  have  a  fixed 
tariff  for  pa\Tnent  for  lost  baggage,  and  on  proof  of  disap- 
pearance of  a  trunk  or  a  satchel  they  pay  with  reasonable 
promptness.  Baggage  is  so  well  cared  for  on  the  Conti- 
nent that  losses  are  rare,  but  the  complaints  are  not  infre- 
quent of  robberies  from  trunks  while  in  transit.  Travel- 
ers on  their  way  from  Italy  to  England  sometimes  find 
that  their  baggage,  which  was  booked  through,  has  been 
opened  while  on  the  road,  and  valuables  abstracted  ;  sus- 
picion points  directly  to  the  railway  servants,  but  when  a 
sufferer  asks  the  railway  companies  to  pay  him  he  is  met 
with  the  response  that  he  must  prove  on  what  road  the 


HOW  TO   TRAVEL.  239 

theft  occurred,  and  must  also  name  the  man  or  men  con- 
cerned in  it.  As  he  is  unable  to  do  this  he  loses  his  time 
as  well  as  his  property,  and  his  principal  consolation  is  to 
write  an  account  of  the  affair  to  the  London  Times  or 
some  other  English  newspaper. 

"  The  laws  regarding  common  carriers  apply  to  steam- 
ships and  steamboats  the  same  as  to  railways,  and  the 
decisions  in  cases  arising  from  loss  of  the  property  of 
passengers  are  of  the  general  character  already  de- 
scribed. 

"  Many  suits  have  arisen  consequent  upon  the  failure  of 
railway  companies  to  run  their  trains  at  the  advertised 
time,  missing  connections,  or  otherwise  causing  loss  to  the 
passenger.  The  courts  have  generally  held  that  the  adver- 
tised time-table  of  a  company  has  the  validity  of  a  con- 
tract with  the  public,  and  unless  it  can  show  that  the  fail- 
ure to  keep  the  agreement  was  quite  beyond  its  control, 
the  passenger  must  be  paid  for  any  immediate  loss  result- 
ing therefrom.  But  the  allowances  are  confined  to 
•direct'  rather  than  to  'indirect'  damages,  and  include 
extra  expense  for  hotel  bills  or  for  special  conveyances, 
and  sometimes  compensation  for  injury  to  health  by  expo- 
sure. A  merchant  may  be  able  to  show  that  by  missing  a 
connection  he  lost  the  opportunity  to  make  a  valuable 
contract;  a  lawyer  may  prove  that  a  case  went  against 
him  because  the  delay  on  the  railway  prevented  his  reach- 
ing court  till  after  the  judge  had  rendered  his  decision ; 
or  an  actor  may  show  that  he  disappointed  an  audience 
and  lost  the  profits  of  a  performance  for  the  same  reason. 
In  all  these  instances  the  courts  will  not  hold  the  com- 
panies responsible,  as  the  loss  is  constructive  and  not 
actual.  On  the  other  hand  the  passenger  is  held  guiltless 
for  a  free  ventilation  of  his  opinions  to  the  conductor  or 
other  representative  of  the  company,  and  he  may  even 


210  now  TO  TIIA"S^L. 

indulge  in  profane  expressions,  if  he  is  unrestrained  by 
moral  training. 

"  There  is  a  case  on  record  in  which  a  railway  train  that 
was  running  behinil  time  was  struck  by  a  tornado,  whereby 
a  passenger  was  injured.  A  suit  was  brought  for  damages 
on  the  ground  that  if  the  train  had  been  on  time  it  would 
not  have  encountered  the  storm,  but  the  court  held  that 
the  delay  was  not  in  any  way  the  cause  of  the  tornado, 
and  therefore  the  company  had  no  responsibility  in  the 
matter.  Accidents  from  floods,  snow-storms,  and  similar 
causes  are  regarded  by  the  courts  as  '  the  act  of  God,'  and 
if  a  company  can  show  that  it  used  all  diligence  to  avert 
disaster,  and  made  every  reasonable  effort  to  get  the  train 
through  on  time,  it  is  exonerated. 

"Delays  on  steamships  are  regarded  in  the  same  light. 
If  a  steamer  meets  with  an  accident  at  sea,  or  is  detained 
by  storms,  the  occurrence  is  treated  as  a  case  of  force 
majeure,  for  which  the  owners  of  the  ship  are  not  respon- 
sible, unless  negligence  or  incapacity  of  the  officers  can  be 
clearly  shown.  If  a  steamer  breaks  down  after  starting 
on  a  voyage,  and  returns  to  the  port  of  departure,  her  pas- 
sengers are  entitled  to  be  conveyed  on  the  vessel  as  soon 
as  the  necessary  repairs  are  effected,  or  on  some  other 
vessel  of  the  same  company,  but  the  company  is  not 
required  to  return  the  money  paid  for  the  passenger's 
fare  unless  it  has  no  vessel  to  start  on  the  voyage  'within 
a  reasonable  time.'  It  generally  does  so  by  courtesy,  to 
avoid  making  enemies,  and  not  infrequently  the  company 
pays  the  hotel  bills  of  delayed  passengers  for  the  same 
reason.  In  the  Mediterranean  and  the  far  East  a  passenger 
delayed  by  the  failure  of  a  ship  to  make  a  connection,  or 
from  any  other  cause,  must  pay  his  own  hotel  bills,  and  if 
he  lives  on  board  the  ship  while  waiting  in  port  he  must 
pay  for  his  meals,  but  not  for  his  lodging. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  241 

"  When  a  ship  is  detained  in  quarantine  the  passengers 
must  pay  for  their  meals,  at  a  reasonable  price,  which  is 
usually  fixed  beforehand.  Several  suits,  growing  out  of 
delays  in  quarantine,  have  arisen,  and  almost  invariably 
the  decisions  have  been  in  favor  of  the  steamship  com- 
panies. In  one  instance  a  steamer  touched  at  an  infected 
port  on  her  way,  and  thereby  subjected  herself  to  be  quar- 
antined on  arriving  at  her  destination.  It  was  shown  that 
she  was  not  advertised  to  touch  at  the  port  in  question, 
and  her  agents,  at  the  point  of  departure,  had  distinctly 
stated  she  would  not  stop  there;  the  court  compelled 
the  refunding  of  the  money  paid  for  board  during  the  ten 
days'  quarantine,  and  also  other  expenses  caused  by  the 
delay,  on  the  ground  that  there  had  been  a  clear  violation 
of  agreement  with  the  public. 

"  The  reader  who  desires  fuller  information  on  this  sub- 
ject will  do  well  to  consult  'Judge  and  Jury,'  by  Benjamin 
Vaughan  Abbott,  and  *  The  Law  of  the  Road,  or  Wrongs 
and  Rights  of  a  Traveler,'  by  R.  Vashon  Rogers.  'Judge 
and  Jury'  endeavors  to  show  the  law  of  the  land  on 
topics  of  general  public  interest,  and  about  sixty  pages  of 
the  book  are  devoted  to  travel  and  transportation.  '  The 
Law  of  the  Road '  is  in  the  form  of  a  story,  introducing  all 
the  incidents  and  accidents  of  travel,  and  their  legal 
aspects.  In  both  books  the  decisions  of  the  courts  are 
cited,  so  that  they  can  be  readily  found.  *  Lawson  on 
Common  Carriers  '  is  also  recommended  as  an  excellent 
authority  on  matters  indicated  by  its  title." 


16 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

WILDERNESS  AND  FRONTIER  TRAVEL. 

The  rapid  extension  of  the  railway  across  the  American 
Continent,  and  the  construction  of  lateral  lines,  have 
greatly  diminished  the  volume  of  travel  with  wagons,  and 
other  primitive  modes,  but  have  by  no  means  made  an 
end  of  them.  There  is  yet  a  large  area  without  settle- 
ments, and  unprovided  with  the  iron  road,  and  for  many- 
years  to  come  the  wagon  of  the  emigrant  and  explorer 
will  wend  its  way  through  the  wilderness.  For  those 
who  contemplate  pushing  beyond  the  borders  of  civiliza- 
tion, the  writer  presents  this  chapter. 

The  means  of  transportation  available  in  frontier  or 
wilderness  regions  are  wagons  and  pack-animals  ;  the 
former  are  adapted  to  most  open  and  prairie  countries, 
but  in  mountain  regions  it  often  happens  that  the  wagon 
cannot  be  used.  The  pack-animals  in  general  use  are 
horses  and  mules ;  the  latter  are  the  surest  of  foot, 
especially  the  Mexican  variety,  which  is  smaller  than  the 
American  mule,  and  can  live  where  the  latter  would 
starve.  Where  snow  is  to  be  encountered  horses  are  to  be 
preferred,  as  the  horse  will  plod  on  through  the  drifts 
long  after  the  mule  has  given  up  in  despair.  The  writer 
of  "  How  to  Travel  "  has  an  unhappy  recollection  of  cross- 
ing the  divide  between  the  Arkansas  and  Platte  rivers  in 
the  winter  of  i860,  when  paths  had  to  be  trodden  in  the 
snow  for  the  mules  before  they  would  consent  to  go  ahead. 

(212) 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  243 

Our  horses  kept  on  through  snow  that  was  nearly  thirty 
inches  deep,  but  even  when  they  had  made  a  very  good 
path  it  was  difficult  to  urge  the  mules  forward. 

The  best  pack-saddles  for  either  horses  or  mules  are  of 
the  "  Grimsley  "  pattern ;  they  are  open  at  the  top,  and 
covered  with  rawhide  that  shrinks  while  drying,  and  is 
thus  drawn  straight.  The  Grimsley  fits  well  on  the  ani- 
mal's back,  and  saves  it  from  soreness  longer  than  any 
other  form  of  saddle  in  use.  The  Indians  have  pack-sad- 
dles in  the  form  of  "  saw-horses,"  and  the  Mexicans  use  a 
leather  sack  like  a  mattress,  which  is  stuffed  with  hay, 
and  has  no  projections  for  fastening  the  load  in  place.  In 
putting  it  on  a  mule  they  draw  the  belt  so  tight  that  it 
seems  to  threaten  to  cut  the  poor  brute  in  two,  and  cer- 
tainly must  give  him  great  pain.  All  the  forms  of  pack- 
saddles,  as  well  as  the  best  riding-saddles  for  frontier  use, 
have  broad  girths  of  braided  horse-hair,  that  are  far  less 
likely  to  slip  than  any  girth  of  leather. 

The  proper  adjustment  of  a  load  on  a  pack-saddle  is  a 
work  of  art  that  can  only  be  accomplished  after  long  ex- 
perience. In  the  first  place,  the  load  must  be  accurately 
balanced,  so  that  it  will  not  have  a  tendency  to  turn  over, 
and,  secondly,  it  must  be  lashed  to  prevent  its  working 
*  loose,  and  scattering '  itself  along  the  trail.  It  is  not 
agreeable  to  find  soon  after  leaving  camp  that  your  lash- 
ings have  loosened,  and  the  load,  which  was  your  pride  at 
starting,  is  being  distributed  by  the  wayside.  To  add  to 
the  perplexity,  the  mule  invariably  helps  the  business 
along  by  executing  a  waltz,  and  kicking  at  imaginary  dogs 
above  the  tree-tops.  Men  have  been  known  to  use  pro- 
fane language  on  such  occasions,  but  a  mule  never  does. 

At  night  the  packs  should  be  placed  in  a  row  and  cov- 
ered with  the  saddles  and  saddle-blankets,  to  protect  them 
from  possible  dew  or  rain,  and  have  them  convenient  for 


244  HOW  TO  tra\t:l. 

loading  up  in  the  morning.  Great  care  should  be  exer- 
cised to  prevent  the  backs  of  the  animals  from  getting 
sore ;  the  best  preventive  is  a  well-fitting  saddle,  but  in 
any  case  the  backs  of  the  feasts  should  be  closely  watched. 
If  a  horse  or  mule  is  found  to  be  sweating  when  unsad- 
dled, it  is  well  to  allow  the  saddle-blanket  to  remain  until 
the  skin  is  dry.  Grease  can  be  applied  to  a  spot  that 
shows  a  tendency  to  soreness,  and  a  piece  of  bacon-rind 
may  be  tied  on  and  left  over  night.  It  is  not  a  good  plan 
to  wash  an  animal's  back  immediately  after  unsaddling, 
and  while  he  is  hot  and  sweating ;  the  back  should  be 
allowed  to  cool  completely  before  water  is  applied. 

A  very  important  member  of  a  pack-train,  especially 
when  it  is  composed  of  mules,  is  the  viadrina,  or  bell- 
mare.  She  must  be  chosen  for  her  dignity  and  docility, 
and  be  ornamented  with  a  bell  like  the  ordinary  cow-bell 
of  the  eastern  States.  Its  tinkle  is  a  great  attraction  to 
the  mules,  and  wherever  she  goes  they  are  sure  to  follow. 
When  the  train  is  on  the  march  she  should  be  kept  in 
front,  and  when  rivers  are  to  be  crossed  she  must  be  sent 
over  first.  The  affection  shown  by  mules  for  the  bell- 
mare  is  often  very  touching  ;  they  will  crowd  around  her 
and  struggle  for  the  privilege  of  rubbing  their  noses  against 
her  sides,  and,  if  she  is  accompanied  by  a  colt,  they  show 
as  much  fondness  for  it  as  girls  do  for  a  baby.  Many  are 
the  stories  told  by  old  plainsmen  about  the  bell-mare,  and 
the  devotion  of  the  rest  of  the  animals  to  her ;  she  saves 
a  vast  deal  of  trouble,  both  in  camp  and  on  the  march,  as 
she  keeps  the  herd  together  when  all  other  means  would 
fail. 

For  wagon  travel  on  long  and  rough  roads,  where  grain 
cannot  be  obtained,  oxen  are  preferable  to  mules  or  horses, 
as  they  have  more  endurance,  though  they  move  more 
slowly.    They  keep  in  good  condition  where  horses  and 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  245 

mules  would  give  out,  and  in  cases  of  emergency,  where 
the  animals  must  be  slaughtered  for  food,  they  make 
orthodox  and  more  attractive  beef.  Fifteen  to  twenty 
miles  is  a  good  day's  journey  for  an  ox-team,  while  horses 
and  mules  can  make  from  twenty  to  thirty,  if  the  roads 
are  fairly  good.  Oxen  are  less  liable  to  be  stampeded  by 
Indians,  and  are  easier  to  keep  from  straying ;  with  a  few 
days'  training  they  can  be  made  to  work  under  the  pack- 
saddle  if  necessary,  and  in  South  Africa  pack-oxen  are  in 
general  use.  Anderson,  who  traveled  in  South  Africa, 
said  he  had  an  ox  named  '  Spring '  that  he  rode  for  two 
thousand  miles,  and  found  him  an  excellent  beast  under 
the  saddle.  It  is  well  for  a  long  journey  to  have  some 
cows  along,  as  they  find  their  own  food,  and  give  milk, 
and,  in  emergencies,  they  may  be  worked  in  the  teams 
like  oxen. 

Wagons  should  be  as  light  as  possible,  consistent  with 
strength,  and  the  wood  should  be  perfectly  seasoned,  in 
order  to  resist  the  effects  of  the  changes  of  the  atmos- 
phere. The  wagon-body  should  be  water-tight,  so  that  it 
will  preserve  its  contents  when  fording  streams,  and  it  can 
also  be  used  as  a  boat  where  a  river  is  too  deep  to  be 
forded.  There  should  be  a  joint  in  the  pole  where  it  en- 
ters the  hounds,  and  the  coupling  pole  should  be  movable  ; 
the  joint  will  often  prevent  the  breaking  of  the  hounds, 
and  the  movable  perch  enables  a  part  of  the  wagon  to  be 
converted  into  a  cart,  when  a  broken  wheel  or  axle  pre- 
vents the  further  use  of  the  entire  vehicle.  Every  wagon 
should  have  strong  bows  and  a  double  cover  of  thick  osna- 
burg  to  protect  the  contents  from  the  rain  and  dew.  The 
bolts  that  connect  the  running-gear  should  be  riveted  at 
the  ends  to  prevent  the  nuts  from  falling  off,  as  the  loss 
of  a  nut  in  the  wilderness  often  leads  to  the  loss  of  the 
entire  wagon. 


246  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

The  load  of  the  wagon  should  be  closely  and  securely 
packed,  and  everything  arranged  to  prevent  fchafing  in  the 
many  jolts  of  the  road.  Provisions  for  the  journey 
should  be  in  the  most  compact  form,  and  not  a  superriuous 
ounce  of  stuff  should  be  taken  along.  Bacon  and  flour 
are  best  carried  in  strong  sacks,  and  all  boxes  and  barrels 
must  be  rejected,  except  one  or  two  light  flour  barrels 
for  getting  water.  Sugar  and  salt  must  be  in  canvas  bags 
with  an  outer  covering  of  India-rubber  or  oil-cloth,  to  pre- 
vent the  moisture  reaching  the  contents,  and  tea  and 
coffee  require  air-tight  cans  for  their  preservation.  Des- 
sicated  and  canned  vegetables  are  excellent ;  the  former 
deserve  the  preference  on  account  of  their  more  con- 
densed form.  Citric  acid  and  the  essence  of  lemons 
should  be  taken  on  long  journeys  where  fresh  vegetables 
cannot  be  obtained,  as  they  are  an  efficient  anti-scorbutic, 
and  it  is  well  to  have  a  few  simple  medicines  in  a  small 
box  that  ought  to  be  kept  in  a  corner  of  one  of  the  wagons, 
wherdKt  can  be  easily  reached. 

The  personal  outfit  of  a  campaigner  in  the  wilderness 
is  not  very  elaborate.  White  shirts  should  be  discarded, 
and  blue  or  red  flannel  worn  instead.  The  coat  should 
be  short  and  of  some  strong  woolen  material,  and  the 
overcoat  heavy  without  being  stiff.  The  trowsers  should 
be  thick  and  soft,  and  if  the  wearer  intends  to  do  any  sad- 
dle-riding he  should  have  his  nether  garments  "  half-soled," 
or  reenforced  with  buckskin  where  they  touch  the  saddle, 
and  thus  preserve  them  from  wear.  An  outfit  for  a  cam- 
paign of  a  hundred  days  might  be  about  as  follows  : — 

Overcoat,  coat,  and  soft  hat,  one  each,  two  flannel  over- 
shirts,  two  woolen  undershirts,  two  pairs  thick  cotton 
drawers,  four  pairs  woolen  socks,  two  pairs  cotton  socks, 
three  pairs  shoes,  one  pair  strong  and  high  boots,  one  In- 
dia-rubber poncho,  and  six  colored  silk  handkerchiefs. 
Then  add  castile  soap  for  toilet  purposes,  and  three  pounds 


HOW  TO  TRAATEL.  247 

bar  soap  for  clothes,  comb  and  brush,  and  tooth-brushes, 
and  a  quantity  of  needles,  thread,  pins,  buttons,  beeswax, 
etc.,  in  a  small  bag  of  buckskm.  By  the  way,  don't  forget 
a  good  quantity  of  buckskin  and  an  awl ;  they  come 
handy  in  many  ways  for  repairing  harness,  clothing,  sad- 
dles, shoes,  and  the  like,  and  you  will  greatly  miss  them 
if  you  forget  them  till  too  late. 

For  bed  and  bedding  you  want  two  blankets,  a  quilt, 
and  a  pillow,  the  whole  wrapped  in  a  cover  of  India-rub- 
ber or  painted  canvas,  which  can  be  spread  on  the  ground 
at  night  to  keep  out  the  moisture.  For  dining-room  and 
kitchen  you  want  for  every  six  persons  a  camp-kettle,  a 
coffee-pot,  a  mess,  a  frying,  and  a  bake-pan,  all  of  wrought- 
iron.  Have  an  extra  camp-kettle  for  accidents,  and  a 
bucket  of  galvanized-iron  for  bringing  water ;  don't  trust 
to  wood,  as  it  is  liable  to  many  accidents  from  which  iron 
is  secure.  Your  judgment  will  tell  you  about  knives, 
forks,  and  spoons ;  cups  and  plates  should  be  of  strong 
tin,  and  the  handles  of  the  former  riveted  on,  never  sol- 
dered. Pepper  and  matches  should  be  in  glass  bottles, 
with  close  corks,  and  kept  in  the  safest  place.  Every 
horse  and  mule  should  have  at  least  two  lariats,  or  picket- 
ropes,  and  every  wagon  needs  an  axe,  and  a  spade,  and 
some  S's,  and  extra  chain-links  for  repairs. 

So  much  for  the  outfit,  to  which  you  will  add  the  fire- 
arms that  suit  your  fancy  and  the  requirements  of  the  re- 
gion you  are  about  to  visit.  Those  that  use  fixed  ammu- 
nition are  undoubtedly  to  be  preferred,  if  you  can  be  sure 
of  a  sufficient  supply  of  cartridges  at  all  times,  but  where 
this  is  not  the  case,  it  is  best  to  adhere  to  the  old-fashioned 
Colt's  revolver,  loading  with  loose  powder  and  ball.  A 
Remington,  Winchester,  or  other  cartridge  rifle  may  be 
carried  for  rapid  work  in  fighting  Indians,  or  killing  large 
game,  and  a  Colt's  revolver,  with  loose  ammunition,  will 
be  a  convenient  thing  for  eyery  day  use  and  ornament. 


248  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

Now  we  are  off,  and  must  look  out  tor  ourselves.  Pro- 
visions for  our  sustenance  are  in  the  wagons,  and  we  must 
think  of  food  and  water  for  our  riding  and  team  animals. 
Make  short  and  easy  drives  for  the  first  few  days,  till  the 
teams  get  accustomed  to  their  work,  and  then  we  will  in- 
crease the  distance ;  we  will  not  make  more  than  half  a 
dozen  miles  the  first  day,  and  even  if  we  only  go  a  mile  or 
two,  and  camp  just  outside  the  town,  we  shall  have  gained 
so  much.  We  will  make  our  marches  in  the  early  part  of 
the  day,  have  a  long  rest  at  noon,  especially  if  we  are 
using  oxen,  and  then  go  on  again  till  sunset.  We  must 
always  camp  near  grass  and  water,  and  it  is  better  to  make 
a  very  long  drive  than  not  to  do  so ;  if  possible,  we  should 
have  grass  and  water  at  the  noon  halt,  but,  in  case  of  nec- 
essity, we  can  do  without  water,  and  then  lengthen  th? 
afternoon  march  so  as  to  reach  it. 

An  old  traveler  will  find  water  where  the  novice  de- 
clares it  does  not  exist ;  none  of  the  rules  are  absolutely 
infallible,  and  the  shrewdest  will  sometimes  be  disap- 
pointed. Observe  the  fresh  tracks  of  animals,  and  the 
flight  of  birds,  and  they  will  frequently  lead  to  water,  es- 
pecially the  tracks  of  deer  and  mustangs.  Examine  the 
dry  beds  of  streams,  and  if  they  are  sandy  push  a  long 
stick  or  cane  as  far  into  the  sand  as  it  will  go ;  if  you  find 
it  moist  when  you  withdraw  it,  you  can  be  certain  of  water. 
Then  dig  a  hole  with  your  spade,  and  use  an  empty 
flour-barrel  for  a  curb,  and  if  the  hole  is  deep  you  can 
place  one  barrel  above  another.  In  a  little  while  the 
water  will  enter  the  barrel,  and  you  may  draw  from  this 
improvised  well  all  you  need  for  your  party  and  your 
stock. 

In  countries  where  streams  and  springs  are  scarce, 
water  may  be  caught  during  showers  by  means  of  tents, 
awnings,  wagon-covers,  and  even  by  rubber  overcoats. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  249 

Drinking-water  may  be  obtained  where  there  are  heavy 
dews  by  dragging  a  blanket  over  the  grass,  and  then  wring- 
ing it  out ;  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  blanket 
should  be  a  clean  one.  Water  from  stagnant  pools  may 
be  purified  by  thorough  boiling,  and  then  mixing  with 
powdered  charcoal ;  in  a  muddy  pond,  it  may  be  partially 
cleansed  by  boring  small  holes  in  the  lower  half  of  a  bar- 
rel, filling  it  two-thirds  full  with  layers  of  moss  or  grass, 
with  alternate  layers  of  clean  sand,  if  the  latter  can  be 
had.  Then  place  the  barrel  in  the  pond  till  the.  top  is 
nearly  level  with  the  surface ;  as  the  water  enters  the  bar- 
rel it  will  pass  through  the  improvised  filter;  and  be 
found  far  purer  than  in  its  original  state. 

Always  form  your  camp  by  the  side  of  a  river  or  stream 
of  some  kind,  if  it  is  possible  to  do  so,  as  you  thereby 
make  sure  of  plenty  of  water  for  your  stock ;  if  in  a  hos- 
tile country,  where  attacks  from  Indians  are  possible,  have 
an  eye  to  the  defences  of  the  position.  A  peninsula  in  a 
river  is  the  best  place,  as  the  water  forms  a  natural  fortifi- 
cation, and  you  have  only  the  neck  of  the  peninsula  to  look 
after ;  if  you  cannot  find  such  a  spot,  take  the  place  that 
most  nearly  resembles  it,  and  if  you  cannot  do  better, 
have  the  river  or  stream  on  one  side  of  you.  If  you  camp 
away  from  water,  select  a  spot  so  as  to  have  the  crest  of  a 
hill  on  one  side  of  you,  where  a  lookout  can  be  stationed. 

It  is  the  custom  for  large  parties  traveling  on  the  west- 
ern plains  of  the  United  States  to  arrange  their  wagons  in 
a  circle,  or  an  oval,  with  an  opening  at  each  end,  at  every 
halt.  A  yard  is  thus  formed,  into  which  the  stock  may  be 
driven  to  be  harnessed  or  yoked.  It  may  be  enclosed  at 
night,  or  when  hostile  attacks  are  made,  and,  finally,  the 
yard,  or  corral,  is  an  excellent  redoubt  from  which  to  make 
a  defense  against  Indians.  Many  a  train  has  been  cap- 
tured by  neglecting  this  precaution,  and  many  another 


250  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

saved  by  observing  it.  No  good  captain  of  a  train  will 
ever  allow  it  to  go  into  camp  even  for  an  hour  without 
forming  the  wagons  into  a  corral.  When  the  stock  is 
driven  in,  the  openings  at  the  ends  of  the  corral  may  be 
closed  by  the  simple  operation  of  stretching  a  chain 
across. 

Where  there  is  a  scarcity  of  water,  you  will  find  you 
can  get  along  without  it  for  many  purposes  for  which  at 
home  it  is  considered  absolutely  necessary.  All  your  cook- 
ing and  dining  utensils  can  be  cleansed  thoroughly  without 
it ;  knives  and  forks  by  thrusting  them  several  times  into 
the  ground  till  every  vestige  of  their  recent  use  is  removed, 
and  plates  and  pans  by  means  of  wisps  of  grass  and  dry 
earth,  joined  to  what  is  known  in  the  Eastern  States  as 
"elbow-grease."  Great  care  should  be  exercised  in  re- 
gions where  water  contains  alkaline  matter,  as  it  induces 
diseases  that  require  a  long  time  for  curing. 

Fuel  is  the  great  need  of  a  traveler  next  to  water.  In  a 
wooded  country  he  has  no  trouble  in  finding  it,  but  he 
should  never  waste  it,  no  matter  how  plentiful.  Never 
build  a  fire  in  a  hollow  log,  or  one  that  is  partially  de- 
cayed, but  clear  a  space  of  ground,  and  roll  or  carry  your 
fuel  to  it.  When  you  move  on  in  the  morning  put  out  the 
fire,  or  encircle  it,  so  that  it  cannot  by  any  possibility 
spread  and  cause  damage.  The  danger  of  a  hollow  log  is 
that  the  fire  may  smoulder  there  for  days,  or  even  weeks, 
and  then  break  out ;  if  the  season  is  dry,  and  the  forests 
extensive,  many  acres  and  miles  of  country  may  be  burned 
over,  and  perhaps  human  lives  may  fall  victims  to  your 
carelessness. 

In  the  open  and  treeless  country  the  wilderness-traveler 
is  often  hard  pressed  for  the  material  for  a  fire.  The 
most  commonly  used  article  is  the  dry  dung  of  buffaloes, 
known  to  the  Canadian  voyageurs  as  bois  de  vache.    It 


now  TO  TRAVEL.  251 

makes  a  hot  fire,  with  very  little  smoke,  and  as  the  ani- 
mals haunt  the  valleys  of  the  streams  in  search  of  the  best 
grass,  they  leave  this  material  in  the  region  of  the  camping 
grounds  v^^here  it  is  most  needed.  It  is  excellent  for  tin- 
der, and  with  a  burning-glass  and  a  piece  of  buffalo-chip 
you  can  get  a  fire  in  a  few  moments,  provided  the  sun  is 
shining.  In  many  parts  of  the  world  the  dried  excrement 
of  grass-feeding  animals  forms  the  only  fuel  of  the  inhabi- 
tants or  of  travelers. 

If  you  sleep  near  a  fire  at  night,  and  the  weather  is  so 
cold  as  to  render  the  heat  desirable,  always  lie  with  your 
feet  towards  it ;  as  long  as  the  feet  are  kept  warm  the  rest 
of  the  body  is  likely  to  be  so,  and  with  cold  feet  no  one 
can  be  comfortable.  Unless  the  surrounding  circum- 
stances compel  you  to  sleep  with  your  boots  or  shoes  on 
be  sure  to  remove  them  before  you  go  to  bed,  as  their 
absence  makes  your  sleep  far  more  refreshing  than  it  is' 
with  them. 

When  you  arrive  at  a  stream,  on  whose  banks  you 
intend  to  camp,  but  which  you  must  cross  before  proceed- 
ing on  your  journey,  make  the  crossing  before  you  halt 
for  the  night.  Streams  rise  suddenly,  and  it  often  hap- 
pens that  what  was  a  tiny  rivulet  at  sunset  is  a  roaring 
torrent  on  the  following  morning,  and  it  may  be  a  day,  or 
several  days,  before  it  subsides.  The  rule  here  given  is 
followed  by  all  experienced  travelers  on  the  plains  of  the 
great  west. 

When  you  break  camp  in  the  morning  one  of  the  party 
should  remain  behind,  after  the  wagons  have  moved  away, 
and  carefully  examine  the  ground  to  see  that  nothing  has 
been  forgotten.  The  members  of  the  party  may  take 
turns  in  this  duty,  or  it  may  be  assigned  to  one  person 
who  should  be  held  responsible  for  whatever  may  be  lost 
by  forgetfulness.      It  will  often  happen  that  some  article 


252  now  TO  TRAA-EL, 

of  camp  equipage  has  been  left  behind,  and  its  absence  is 
unknown  until  camp  is  formed,  at  the  end  of  the  day's 
march.  A  thought  B  had  put  it  in  the  wagon,  and  B  was 
certain  that  A  had  attended  to  it,  or  at  least  he  should 
have  done  so.  Many  a  quarrel  has  been  saved  by  this 
simple  precaution,  and  also  many  a  deprivation,  as  the 
loss  of  a  camp-kettle  or  frying-pan,  when  it  cannot  be 
replaced,  is  a  very  serious  matter.  Since  the  writer  gave 
up  the  wilderness  for  civilized  travel  it  has  always  been 
his  custom,  after  his  trunks  have  been  packed  and  locked 
at  a  hotel,  to  renew  his  practice  of  olden  times  and  go 
through  his  room  with  the  utmost  care,  examining  every 
drawer  of  bureau  or  washstand,  and  looking  into  every 
closet.  Candor  compels  him  to  say  that  once  in  a  while 
he  finds  articles  of  greater  or  less  value  that  but  for  this 
rule  he  would  have  left  behind. 

>  One  of  the  perplexities  of  travel  in  wild  countries  is  the 
passage  of  rivers.  Shallow  streams  can  be  forded,  and  if 
the  current  is  not  strong  a  depth  of  five  feet  may  be 
passed  without  serious  difficulty.  Many  streams  are  full 
of  quicksand,  and  in  such  case  the  rule  is  to  keep 
your  team  in  constant  motion  after  it  enters  the  water. 
As  long  as  a  man  keeps  moving  on  quicksand  there  is  no 
danger,  but  whenever  he  stops  his  feet  begin  to  sink,  and 
if  he  remains  stationary  he  will  speedily  find  himself 
beyond  his  depth.  The  same  conditions  are  true  of  sad- 
dle or  draught  animals,  and  of  the  wheels  of  wagons. 
Where  there  are  quicksands  horses  should  be  led  across, 
and  to  insure  their  going  steadily  forward  they  should  be 
allowed  to  drink  all  they  wish  before  entering  the  stream. 
Horses  and  oxen  are  more  certain  to  go  ahead  without 
halting  than  mules ;  the  latter  are  apt  to  lie  down  and 
refuse  to  move,  exactly  as  they  do  in  deep  snow. 

In  a  difficult  ford  the  teams  had  better  be   doubled. 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  253 

The  driver  should  stand  on  the  front  of  the  wagon  with  a 
reliable  whip  in  his  hand,  and  be  assisted  by  one  or  more 
mounted  men  on  each  side  of  the  team.  It  is  well  also 
to  have  a  mounted  man  ride  ahead  with  a  long  lariat  on 
picket  rope  attached  to  the  forward  leaders  of  the  team, 
so  as  to  direct  their  course.  In  a  swift  current  the  ford 
should  be  made  obliquely  downwards  if  possible,  so  that 
the  current  can  assist  the  progress  of  the  wagons. 

In  crossing  a  stream  too  deep  for  fording,  boats  or 
rafts  may  be  improvised  from  wagon  beds,  or  they  may  be 
built  on  the  spot.  If  the  current  is  swift  a  ferry  must  be 
made,  and  for  this  purpose  (after  the  spot  for  crossing  has 
been  selected)  an  expert  swimmer  goes  over  with  a  fish- 
line  or  other  slender  cord  in  his  mouth.  By  means  of  this 
cord  a  strong  lariat  can  be  drawn  over ;  it  should  be  twice 
as  long  as  the  width  of  the  river,  and  fastened  on  each 
shore  to  a  tree,  or  a  wagon  tongue  set  in  the  ground  iL 
there  are  no  trees.  To  make  a  ferry-boat  from  a  wagon- 
bed  put  it  in  the  center  of  a  wagon-cover  or  other  strong 
canvas,  and  then  bring  the  edges  up  over  the  sides  to  the 
top ;  the  leakage  will  then  be  so  slight  that  a  man  with  a 
cup  can  easily  keep  it  free  from  water.  The  contents  of 
the  wagons  can  be  passed  in  this  boat  by  means  of  the 
ferry  rope,  the  animals  can  swim  over,  and  the  empty 
wagons  mav  be  passed  by  fastening  them  down  to  the 
axles,  and  attaching  ropes  to  the  tongue  and  also  to  the 
rear.  They  are  then  drawn  over  by  the  men  on  the  far- 
ther bank,  and  kept  from  drifting  by  means  of  the  rear 
rope. 

If  you  are  about  to  swim  a  stream  with  a  horse  it  is  not  a 
good  plan  to  remain  in  the  saddle,  as  your  weight  presses 
heavily  on  the  animal  and  restricts  his  movements.  It  is 
better  to  dismount,  tie  a  cord  eight  or  ten  feet  long  to  his 
bridle,  drive  him  into  the  stream,  and  then  grasp  his  tail 


254  HOW  TO  TRAVEL. 

and  be  towed  over.  If  he  tries  to  turn  back  you  can 
direct  him  with  the  cord  or  by  splashing  water  towards 
his  head.  If  you  do  remain  in  the  saddle  give  him  a  free 
rein,  and  do  not  pull  in  the  least,  except  when  it  is  neces- 
sary to  guide  him.  Horses  and  oxen  are  better  swimmers 
than  mules  ;  the  latter  are  easily  frightened  and  may  sud- 
denly turn  down  stream,  refusing  all  attempts  to  bring 
them  to  land.  They  are  also  more  liable  to  be  drowned, 
and  great  care  should  be  taken  that  they  do  not  get  water 
in  their  ears ;  as  soon  as  you  see  a  mule  droop  his  ears 
you  may  know  that  he  is  in  danget,  and  the  water  should 
be  removed  immediately  on  reaching  land,  if  you  are  so 
fortunate  as  to  get  him  there.  For  this  reason  never 
splash  water  towards  a  mule's  head,  and  do  not  make  him 
jump  into  the  water  if  possible  to  avoid  doing  so. 

An  excellent  ferr}--boat  may  be  made  from  a  green  or 
soaked  hide  of  ox  or  buffalo,  or  better  still,  from  two  or 
Tnore  hides.  You  will  generally  find  willows  growing  on 
the  banks  of  the  streams ;  gather  some  of  the  smaller 
ones,  sharpen  the  butts  and  drive  them  into  the  ground, 
so  as  to  form  an  oval  figure  of  the  size  of  your  intended 
boat.  Then  bring  the  tops  together,  weave  slender  wil- 
low rods  among  the  larger  ones  till  the  structure  resem- 
bles a  basket  with  a  round  bottom,  and  have  a  specially 
strong  willow  running  around  all  of  them  near  the  ground, 
and  firmly  fastened,  to  make  the  gunwale  of  your  boat. 
If  your  boat  is  made  of  one  hide  stretch  it  over  the  basket 
and  sew  it  to  the  large  rod  around  the  top,  and  let  the 
whole  thing  stand  a  few  hours  in  the  sun  to  get  dry ;  then 
cut  off  the  rods  where  they  enter  the  ground  and  you  have 
a  boat  that  will  carry  four  or  five  hundred  pounds  with 
case.  For  a  larger  boat,  with  two  or  more  hides,  you 
want  a  more  pretentious  frame,  a  stout  pole  for  a  keel, 
and  two  smaller  poles  for  gunwales.      This  water  vehicle 


HOW  TO  TRAVEL.  255 

is  known  on  the  plains  as  a  hill-boat^  and  can  be  easily 
constructed,  provided  the  traveler  has  a  supply  of  wil- 
lows, some  green  or  soaked  hides,  and  a  fair  amount  of 
common  sense.  Where  a  traveler  expects  to  encounter 
streams  that  cannot  be  forded  he  would  do  well  to  carry 
two  or  three  dried  hides,  and  then  he  will  have  the 
material  for  covering  a  bull-boat  always  at  hand. 

While  we  are  speaking  of  hides,  another  use  of  them 
may  be  mentioned.  It  often  happens  that  emigrants,  or 
settlers  in  a  new  country,  wish  to  salt  a  quantity  of  beef 
or  other  meat  but  have  no  cask  or  other  receptacle  in 
which  to  place  it.  In  this  emergency  dig  a  hole  in  the 
ground,  of  such  dimensions  that  the  hide  of  the  slaugh- 
tered animal  will  just  line  it ;  then  place  the  hide  in  the 
hole,  with  the  flesh  side  up,  fasten  the  edges  to  the  ground 
with  wooden  pegs,  and  you  have  a  salting  cask  that  you 
may  use,  sans  peiir  et  sans  reproache.  An  animal's  hide  is 
also  useful  to  bake  him  in,  and  in  this  way :  Skin  and 
dress  your  game  and  then  sew  what  you  intend  to  bake 
mto  the  hide.  Build  a  good  fire  in  a  hole  in  the  ground 
with  a  sort  of  rude  oven  of  stones  around  it,  and  keep  it 
going  till  the  ground  and  stones  are  hot.  Now  sweep 
out  the  ashes,  throw  in  your  roasting  piece,  cover  it  with 
dry  or  green  leaves,  put  back  the  hot  embers  as  quickly 
as  possible,  and  then  continue  the  fire  long  enough  to 
cook  the  meat  beneath  it.  The  writer  has  practiced  this 
form  of  cookery  on  several  occasions  and  found  the  result 
very  satisfactory. 

If  your  supply  of  fuel  is  limited,  and  you  have  much 
cooking  to  do,  dig  a  narrow  trench  for  the  fire  and  place 
your  kettles  and  pots  above  it ;  make  the  trench  with  one 
end  towards  the  wind,  and  build  a  small  chimney  of 
stones  or  earth  at  the  other  end.  Another  way  is  to  dig 
a  round  hole  a  foot  deep,  and  place  the  kettles  in  a  circle 


256  HOYT  TO  TIlA^'EL. 

on  its  border,  half  of  each  kettle  being  on  the  ground 
and  half  over  the  fire.  If  you  lose  all  your  kettles  and 
frying-pans  it  is  well  to  know  that  you  can  improvise  a 
frying-pan  by  taking  two  large  flat  stones  and  laying  one 
above  another,  with  a  few  pebbles  between  to  keep  them 
apart.  Build  a  fire  arouna  them,  and  when  they  are  well 
heated  sweep  away  all  the  ashes  and  put  your  slices  of 
meat  between  the  stones  ;  you  will  be  well  satisfied  with 
the  frying  process  that  ensues. 

But  space  is  limited  and  we  must  pause.  The  writer 
could  go  on  for  many  more  pages,  giving  advice  to  travel- 
ers in  the  wilderness,  of  varying  degrees  of  usefulness,  and 
mainly  drawn  from  his  own  experience  as  a  frontier  cam- 
paigner years  and  years  ago.  But  the  demands  of  the 
printer,  and  the  interests  of  the  non-migrating  reader,  for- 
bid an  extension  of  the  chapter.  If  more  on  the  same 
subject  is  desired  it  will  be  found  in  an  eminently  practi- 
cal little  volume  entitled  "  The  Prairie  Traveler,"  by 
Captain  (since  General)  R.  B.  Marcy;  the  author  is 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  subject,  as  any  old  officer  of 
the  army  can  testify. 


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Established  iS:;o. 


INMAN  LINE 

United  States  I  Royal  Mail  Steamers, 

a 
City  of  Rome,  8,300  Tons. 

Tons.  Tons. 

City  of  Berlin,  5,491.  City  of  Montreal,  4,490. 
City  of  Richmond,  4,607.  City  of  Brussels,  3,775. 
City  of  Chester,     4,566.       City  of  New  York,  3,500. 

NEW  YORK  TO  LIVERPOOL,  -  THURSDAYS  OR  SATURDAYS. 
LIVERPOOL  TO  NEW  YORK,     -     TUESDAYS   OR  THURSDAYS. 


RATES  OF  PASSAGE,  $80  and  Sioo,  according  to 
accommodation,  all  having  equal  saloon  privileges. 
Children  between  two  and  twelve  years  of  age,  half  fare. 
Servants,  S50. 

ROUND  TRIP  TICKETS,  S144  and  S180. 

TICKETS  TO  LONDON,  S7,  and  to  PARIS  Si 5  and 
S20  additional,  according  to  the  route  selected. 

THE  STEAMERS  of  this  Line,  built  in  watertight  com- 
partments, are  among  the  strongest,  largest,  and  fastest 
on  the  Atlantic. 

THE  SALOONS  are  luxuriously  furnished,  have  revolv- 
ing chairs,  are  especially  well  lighted  and  ventilated, 
and  take  up  the  whole  width  of  the  ship. 

THE  PRINCIPAL  STATEROOMS  are  amidships, 
forward  of  the  engines,  where  least  noise  and  motion  is 
felt,  and  all  replete  with  every  comfort,  having  double 
berths,  electric  bells,  and  all  latest  improvements. 

LADIES'  CABINS  and  bath-rooms,  Gentlemen's  smok- 
ing and  bath-rooms.  Barbers'  shops,  pianos,  libraries, 
etc.,  provided. 

MEALS  SERVED  a  la  carte. 


These  Steamers  do  not  carry  Horses,  Cattle,  Sheep,  or  Pigs. 

For  further  particulars  apply  to 
John  G.  Dale,  Agent,  31  and  ■}^'},  Broadway,  New  York. 
Geo.  a.  Faulk,      "     105  South  Fourth  St',  Philadelphia. 
L.  H.  Palmer,         "     3  Old  State  House,  Boston. 
F.  C.  Brown,  "     32  South  Clark  Street,  Chicago, 


WM.  KNABE  &  CO, 

112  Fifth  Avenue, 

NEW  YORK. 


204  AND  206  W.  Baltimore  Street, 
BALTIMORE,  MD. 

M/f(UFACTUI|EI|S  OF  PlAf^OS. 


^'GUION  LINE." 

United  States  Mail  Steamers 


SAILING   WEEKLY 


Between  Hew  Yoi^k  and  Livei\pool. 

(CALLING  AT  QUEENSTOWN.) 


These  Steamers  are  built  of  Iron,  in  watertight  com- 
partments, and  are  furnished  with  every  requisite  to  make 
the  passage  across  the  Atlantic  both  safe  and  agreeable, 
having  bath-room,  smoking-room.,  drawing-room,  piano, 
and  library;  also  experienced  Surgeon,  Stewardess,  and 
Caterer  on  each  Steamer.  The  staterooms  are  all  upper 
deck,  thus  insuring  those  greatest  of  all  luxuries  at  sea, 
perfect  ventilation  and  light. 

CABIN  PASSAGE,  $60,  $So,  and  $100,  according  to 
Location,  etc. 

INTERMEDIATE.— This  is  a  class  that  affords  people 
of  moderate  means  a  respectable  way  of  traveling.  Beds, 
bedding,  wash-basins,  etc.,  together  with  good  food,  sepa- 
rate dining-room  from  either  cabin  or  steerage  being  pro- 
vided.    Passage,  $40  single  ;  $So  round  trip. 

STEERAGE  PASSAGE  at  Low  Rates. 

DRAFTS  payable  in  Ireland,  England,  and  Scotland 
at  low  rates. 
Apply  to 

WILLIAMS  &  GUION, 

29   BROADWAY,    N.  Y. 


NBi 


i 


59  Wall  StFeet,   -    New  York, 
209  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia, 
66  State  Street,    -    -    Boston, 


ALEXANDER    BROWN    &    SONS, 

Cor.  Baltimore  and  Calvert  Streets, 

BALTIMORE. 


BUY  AND  SELL  BILLS  OF  EXCHANGE 

ON 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  France, 
Germany,  Belgium,  and  Holland. 

ISSUE  COMMERCIAL  M^RAVELERS"  CREDITS 

IN  STERLING,  available  in  any  part  of  the  world,  and 
IN  FRANCS,  for  use  in  Martinique  and  Guadaloupe. 


MAKE  TELEGRAPHIC  TRANSFERS  OF  MONEY 

Between  This  and  Other  Countries, 
Through  London  and  Paris. 


To  Travelers.— Travelers  Credits  issued  either  against 
cash  deposited  or  satisfactorv  guarantee  of  repavment. 
In  Dollars,  for  use  in  the  United  States  and  adjacent 
fh"'^^^'^i!i'  °^  "^  Pounds  Sterling,  for  use  in  anv  part  of 
the  world.  Application  for  Credits  mav  be  addressed  to 
either  of  the  a/fove  houses  direct,  or  through  any  first-class 
Bank  or  Banker. 

HOUSES   IN    LONDON   AND   LIVERPOOL, 

^Iessrs,   j^p^owN,    ^Shipley   ^    po. 


f 


HATCH  &  FOOTE, 

BANKERS, 

No.  12  WALL  STREET, 
NEW  YORK. 


We  buy  and  sell  U.  S.  Bonds,  execute  orders  in  Stocks, 

Bonds,  and  Miscellaneous  Securities,  and  transact 

a  general  Banking  Business.     Interest 

allowed  on  deposits. 


i 


OREGON 

Railway  and  Navigation  Co.. 

OWNING  AND   OPERATING    THE 

WALLA  WALLA  &  COLUMBIA  I^IVER  I|.  \ 
OCEAN   DIVISION. 

T/ie  only  direct  Mail  Line  from 

San  FraneisGO  to  Portland,  Oregon. 

Carrying  Wells,  Fargo  &  Go's  Express. 

"GEORGE  W.  ELDER."  "OREGON."  "COLUMBIA." 

Regular  Steamships  from  Portland  to  San  Francisco 

and  return,  every  Five  Days  until  further  notice. 
Connections  made  at  Portland,  Oregon,  for  all  points 
in  Oregon,   Washington   and   Idaho   Territories,  British 
Columbia,  and  Alaska. 

K.  Van  Oterendorf,  Superintendent. 

Columbia  &  Willamette  Division. 

Connecting  with  Northern  Pacific  R.  R.  at  Kalama  and 
Ainsworth ;  and  with  Walla  Walla  and  Columbia  River 
R.  R.  at  Wallula. 

Geo.  J.  Ainsworth,  Superintendent. 


Walla  Walla  &  Columbia  River  RailFoad. 

■  Connects  at  Wallula  (on  Columbia  River)  with  Steam- 
boats of  O.  R.  &  N.  Co.  This  Line,  being  rapidly  con- 
structed, is  now  open  to  Weston,  Oregon. 

CONSIGN  ALL  FREIGHT  "  VIA  OREGON  RAILWAY  &  NAVIGATION  CO." 


H.  VILLARD,  T.  F.  OAKES, 

President.  Vice-Pres't  and  Gen'l  Manager. 

A.  L.  STOKES,  General  Eastern  Passenger  Agent, 
52  Clark  Street,  Chicago. 


To  Travellers  Visiting  New  York. 
The  Il(TERpiONjlL  EXGH>t(GE 

AND  READING  ROOMS, 

Madison    Square,    New    York. 

(Entrances  953  Broadway,  and  185  Fifth  Avenue,  corner  of  23d  Street.) 

C.  A.  O'ROURRE  &  CO,,  PiipPiiiETOiiS. 

Strangers  to  the  United  States,  or  to  New  York,  can  find  at 
this  institution  tlie  i?i/or)natiou  and  facilities  most  useful  to  t/iein. 
A  mong  t/ie  features  of  tJie  estailishtnent  are : 

1.  The  leading  newspapers  of  the  principal  cities  of  the  world  are  kept 
on  file.     The  latest  issues  of  these  journals  are  received  by  every  mail. 

2.  Infonnation  for  travellers  as  to  the  places  of  interest  in  the  city, 
and  how  to  visit  them.  Also  in  regard  to  travel,  routes,  cost,  etc.,  to  all 
points  of  the  United  States,  Canada,  Mexico,  the  West  Indies,  and  South 
America.  Accommodations  secured  in  advance  at  leading  hotels  in  all 
cities.     Inteqjreters  and  guides  furnished. 

3.  Theatre,  Railroad,"and  Steamship  Tickets  can  be  purchased  at 
regular  rates.  Diagrams  of  the  seats,  and  Telephonic  communications 
with  leading  Theatres. 

4.  Foreign  Money  Exchanged. 

5.  Direct  Telegraphic  communication  at  regular  rates  with  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

6.  The  important  news  of  the  world,  especially  if  of  financial  or  com- 
mercial interest,  received  at  the  Exchange  and  Bulletined. 

7.  Notification  of  Steamship  arrivals,  and  of  arrivals  and  depaitures 
of  Mails.    Subscribers  can  receive  their  Letters  at  the  Exchange. 

8.  Quotations  of  Railroad,  Mining,  Produce,  and  other  Stocks, 
received  at  the  Exchange  by  telegraph. 

Americans  sojourning  in  New  York  en  route  to  Europe  can  avail 
themselves  not  only  of  the  general  advantages  of  the  Exchange,  but  can 
obtain  information  in  regard  to  routes  of  travel,  principal  places  of  resort,- 
cost,  etc.,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  International  Exchange  counts  among  its  annual  subscribers  a 
verj'  large  number  of  the  leading  business  and  public  men  of  New  York. 

Subscriptio7i  price  $25.00  per  year,  $10.00  per  gitarter,  $5.00  per 
month,  payable  in  advance. 

The  Traveller,  published  weekly  by  the  Intemational  Exchange 
contains,  besides  matters  of  general  interest,  infonnation  in  a  concise 
form  most  useful  for  travellers. 


American  Exchange  in  Europe, 

(LIMITED.) 

HEADQUARTERS  FOR  AMERICANS  IN  EUROPE, 

AND 

Post-Offlce  Address  for  Travelers'  Correspondence, 

449   Strand,  London,  England, 
president,  gen'l  manager, 

Joseph  R.  Hawley.    Henry  F.  Gillig. 

The  following  Particular  Advantages  for  Travelers: 

I  St. —The  largest  number  of  American  newspapers  on  file  in  Europe.  _ 

2d. — ^The  only  place  in  Europe  where  the  directories  of  American  cities 
and  towns  can  be  found. 

3d.— The  only  place  where  arrivals  are  published  weekly,  and  circulated 
throughout  the  world. 

4th.— The  only  place  where  Travelers  can  obtain  their  Letteks 
Every  Day  in  the  year,  and  offering  facilities  to  travelers  for 
correspondence  with  their  friends. 

5th. — ^The  only  place  where  the  arrival  of  Steamers  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  is  made  known  by  telegraph  immediately  on  being  signalled, 

6th.— The  only  channel  for  economical  telegraphic  communication  be- 
tween America  and  Europe  by  a  code  containing  innumerable 
phrases  specially  compiled  for  travelers,  and  relating  to  domestic 
as  well  as  business  matters. 

7th.— The  only  place  in  Europe  where  all  the  leading  American  news- 
papers are  kept  on  sale. 

8th. — The  only  place  where  there  is  a  separate  reading  and  writing  room 
for  ladies. 

9th.— The  only  place  where  all  the  lines  of  Steamers  and  Routes  of 
European  travel  are  impartially  represented;  where  impartial 
information  and  advice  on  all  subjects  relating  to  travel  can  be 
obtained;  and  where  every  requirement  of  the  traveler  is  supplied. 

loth.— The  only  place  of  the  kind  in  Europe  managed  exclusively  by 
Americans. 

Over  six  hundred  Newspapers,  two  hundred  city  and  state  Directories, 
three  hundred  official  State  and  Municipal  Reports  regularly  filed  in  the 
Reading  Rooms  of  the  Exchange. 

Travelers'  Branch  open   daily  from  9  A.  M.  to  midnight. 

Passage  Tickets  issued  available   by  any  line   of   Steamers. 

Freight  and  Parcels  booked  at  through  rates  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Baggage  and  Goods  Stored. 

N.  B— Printed  Addressed  Envelopes  can  be  obtained  Free  of 
Cost  at  the  Branch  OfHce,  102  Broadway.  New  York,  and  at 
Hotels,  Railroad  and  Steamship  Ticket  Offices  throughout  the 
United  States,  Canada,  and  Europe. 

Henry  F.   Gillig,  General  Manager. 


E,  I[EMipOti,  &  SOUS, 

MANUFACTURERS   OF   THEIR   CELEBRATED 

MILITARY  BREECH-LOADING  RIFLES, 

CARBINES  AND  PISTOLS, 

of  which  more  than   1,500,000  have  been  sold  to  nearly 
every  Government  in  the  World. 

ALSO, 

Long,  Mid,  Short-Range  and  Sporting 

BREECH-LOADING   RIFLES, 

Which  have  won  for  themselves  world-renowned  reputa- 
tion for  accurate  shooting  at  Creedmoor,  New  York ; 
Dollymount,     Ireland ;     Wimbledon,    England ; 
Ontario,    Canada,   and   many   other    ranges 
throughout   the    civilized   world. 

LIKEWISE 


DouWe  and  Single-Barreled  Shot  Guns 

Equaled  by  few  and  inferior  to  none  extant. 

Revolvino;,  Repsaiine;  and  Single  Shot  Pistols 


ARMY,  NAVY,  POLICE,  HOUSE  AND  POCKET  SIZES, 

ONE    TO     SIX     SHOTS. 

Cartridges,  Loading  Implements,  Shooting  Canes, 
Bullets,  Primers,  Shells,  Etc.,  Etc. 

MANUFACTORY: 
ILIOX,  HERKIMER  COUNTY,  N.  Y.,  U.  S.  A. 
SALESROOMS: 
2S3  Broadway,  Xew  York, 

71   State  Street,  Chicago,  111., 

21  So.  Howard  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 


LIGHTEN  YOUR  LABOR 

BY   USING 

The  PEpcTED  Type-W[[itei[, 

SEE  WHAT  IT  WILL  DO. 


FROM  THE  AUTHOR  OF   "HOW  TO  TRAVEL." 

New  York,  March  4,  1S81. 
E.  Remington  &  Sons  : — Gentlemen  : 

In  reply  to  your  inquiry  of  yesterday  I  beg  to  say  that 
I  consider  the  Type-Writer  invaluable  to  any  one  who  has 
a  large  amount  of  writing  to  do.  For  clearing  off  an 
accumulation  of  correspondence  on  returning  from  a 
journey  it  is  admirable,  and  for  preparing  printer's  "copy" 
it  is  unrivaled.  If  I  could  not  get  another  Type-Writer 
I  would  not  willingly  take  ten  thousand  dollars  for  the 
one  I  now  have.  It  is  little  more  than  two  years  since  I 
bought  it,  and  in  all  that  time  its  repairs  have  cost  exactly 
fifty  cents.  Besides  all  my  private  correspondence,  mag- 
azine articles,  and  newspaper  matter,  I  have  written  four 
books  with  this  machine  and  shall  complete  a  fifth  in  a 
few  days.  The  saving  of  time  to  me  is  not  far  from  25 
per  cent.,  and  in  this  one  item  the  Type-Writer  has  paid 
for  itself  several  times  over. 

Very  truly  yours, 

THOS.  W.  KNOX. 


E.R 


MANUFACTURED   AND    SOLD    ONLY   BY 

EMiNGTON  &  Sons, 


PRINCIPAL   offices: 

281  and  283  Broadway,  New  York. 

BRANCH    offices: 

38  Madison  St.,  Chicago.       124  So.  7th  St.,  Philadelphia. 


PURCHASES 

AT 

HIGHEST 

PRICES. 


1205  BROADWAY, 

OPPOSITE  GILSEY  HOUSE. 


Dessins  et 
evaluations 
faite  pour  la 
monture  de 
Diamants. 


911.  e^cmc^^ 

53,  55,  .-^57   ^azk  fface, 


\£)ti:4:^tzotupin^cj 


cin-b 


Sn'  <xit  it:>  §8^ai4'cf^eo. 


THE    PERMANENT   CURE   OF   CATARRH. 
Rey.  T.  P.  cmiils'  Treatment  \k  My  Effeciaal  Way. 

CHIL.DS'    CATA.Tt'R'H.    SPECIFIC 

Is  no  new  untried  cure,  but  a  Positive  and  Certain  Remedy. 

■VTE,  ABOVK  ALL  THINGS,  DKSIRF.   TO  ESTABLISH  COXFIDEXCK  IN*  OUE 

TREATMENT,   SO   THAT   EVERV   SL'FFERtR   FROM   CATARRH   AND 

BRONCHITIS   MAY  FEEL  CERTAIN  OF  SCCCESS  IN  ITS   USE. 

193  E.  Fayette  St.,  Baltimore,  Md.,  Dec,  20,  1879. 
Rev.  T.  p.  Childs. — I  have  the  pleasure  of  informing 
you  that  after  a  faithful  use  of  your  remedy  for  eight  weeks 
ending  March  28,  1879,  I  ^^  completely  rid  of  a  stubborn 
case  of  catarrh  of  three  years'  standing — breathing  tubes 
clear  as  a  whistle,  appetite  good,  and  digestion  good. 

Yours,  Thomas  B.  Hand. 

Rev.  T.  p.  Childs  :  Dear  Sir — I  think  you  have  the  true 
theory  and  practice  for  cure  of  nasal  catarrh,  and  also  for 
the  treatment  of  respiratory  organs.  My  throat  is  now  so 
well  restored  that  I  can  lecture  daily  without  any  dititiculty, 
and  find  no  diiliculty  whatever  in  preaching.  You  are  at 
full  liberty  to  use  my  name  for  the  benefit  of  others. 
Yours  very  truly,  E.  B.  Fairchild,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Nebraska,  Lincoln,  Neb. 

WHAT  THE  EDITORS  SAY. 
"  While  not  supposing  that  all  cases  of  catarrh  will  be 
cured  by  the  prescription  advertised,  the  publishers  of  the 
Illustrated  Christian  Weekly,  after  diligent  inquir}-, 
have  reason  to  believe  that  it  has  in  many  cases  proved 
effectual." — Illustrated  Christian   Weekly,  New  York. 

"The  publishers  of  the  Congregationalist,  with  multitudes 
of  other  people,  are  somewhat  suspicious  of  patent  medi- 
cines as  a  rule,  and  when  we  received  the  advertisement  of 
Mr.  Childs  we  at  first  declined  its  insertion;  but,  on  mak- 
ing inquiry,  we  received  such  satisfactory  replies,  and  one 
especially  from  a  well-known  Congregational  pastor  not  far 
from  Rev.  Mr.  Childs,  the  proprietor  of  the  medicine,  that 
we  withdrew  our  objections." — Congregationalist,  Boston. 

CHILDS"  CATARRH  SPECIFIC  will  effectually  and  permanently 

cure  any  case  of  catarrh,  no  matter  how  desperate,    it  can  only 

be  obtained  at  Troy,  Ohio.     The  treatment  is  local  as  well  as 

constitutional,  and   cannot  be  obtained  at  the  drug  stores. 

We  especially  desire  to  treat  those  who  have  tried  other 

remedies  without  success. 

Child's  Treatment  of  Cata/rh,  and  for  diseases  of  the  Bronchial 

Tubes,  can  be  taken  at  home,  with  perfect  ease  and  safety,  by 

the  patient.     No  expense  need  be  entailed  beyond  the  cost 

of  the  medicine. 

Rev.  T.  p.  childs,  Troy,  Ohio. 


THE  POLAND  SPRING  WATER 

Has  cured  numerous  cases  of  Bright's  Disease  of  the 

Kidneys,  as  well  as  other  forms  of  disease  resulting 
from  Blood  Poison,  z\ich  as  Malarial  Fever, 
Rheumatic  Fever,  Dyspepsia,  Constipa- 
tion, Gravel,   Diabetes,   Scrofula, 
Dropsy,  Etc. 

Although  an  exceedingly  pleasant  water  to  drink,  it 
possesses  those  peculiar  properties  that  restore  to  action  the 
Kidneys,  Liver,  and  other  Internal  Organs  that  may  have 
become  sluggish  in  their  movements.  Thus  by  cleansing 
the  blood  the  body  is  restored  to  its  original  vigor,  and 
the  complexion  to  its  original  freshness  and  beauty.  Were 
it  more  generally  used  there  would  be  far  less  demand  for 
drugs  and  cosmetics. 

The  following  gentlemen  of  this  city  will  cheerfully  bear 
testimony  to  its  remarkable  curative  qualities : 

J.  W.  Pottle ;  S.  Jacoby,  103  Broad  Street ;  J.  M.  Schuy- 
ler, 114  Wall  Street;  C.  E.  Blumenthal,  M.D.,  54  West 
45th  Street ;  W.  G.  Tuller  and  Ira  Thorn,  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel;  J.  Munroe  Taylor,  113  Water  Street;  C.  Y.Wemple, 
Vice-Pres't  Manhattan  Life  Insurance  Companv;  Root  & 
Childs,  87  Worth  Street ;  J.  B.  Libby,  of  H.  J.  Libby  &  Co., 
White  Street;  Deering  &  Milliken,  79  and  81  Leonard 
Street ;  G.  N.  Dickinson,  of  Lee,  Tweedy  &  Co. ;  A.  A. 
Vantine,  827,  829,  and  831  Broadway;  Edward  Carroll,  of 
Fal(  oner,  Carroll  &  Co. ;  C.  P.  Tooker,  of  Kiggins,  Tooker 
&  Co.,  125  William  Street;  John  R.  Ames,  Board  of 
Education;  George  A.  Dresser  and  Wm.  Silver,  Queens 
Insurance  Company;  W.  H.  Scott,  M.D.,  8  East  41st 
Street;  Henry  C.  Houghton,  M.D.,  44  West  35th  Street; 
H.K.White,  548  Broadway;  Wm.  H.  Lindsley,  279  Broad- 
way; M.  M.  Stanfield,  Victoria  Hotel;  Wm."  B.  Bogle,  of 
Bogle  &  Lyles;  I.  F.  Slader,  Brandreth  House;  F.  J.  Allen, 
Astor  House ;  J.  H.  Small,  1 1 1  Front  Street. 

The  undersigned  have  within  their  personal  knowledge 
cases  in  which  Poland  Spring  Water  has  proved  highly 
beneficial.  H.  L.  Bridgman.        Thos.  W.  Knox 

^^^^  For  sale  in  large  or  small  quantities  by 

0.  HUTCHINSON,  the/uthofizedTlgent, 

145  Nassau  St.,  New  York 


J,  H,  Johnston, 

150  Bowery,  New  York, 

f)upli(5kte  Weddii\g  f^i'e^ei\t^, 

SURPLUS  SILVERWARE, 

DIAMONDS,  WATCHES, 
JEWELRY,  BRONZES, 

AND  PAINTINGS, 


Inscriptions  erased  and  Silverware  refinished  and  sold 

50  PEI[CEHT,  BELOW  MAHUFACTUI[ERS'  COST, 

Constant  Bargains  in  Xew  and  Second-hand 

WATCHES. 


FINE  DIAMONDS  BELOW  PARIS  PRICES. 


ESTABLISHED  OVER  30  YEARS, 

Dealing  only  in  Fine  Goods.  A  visit  to  150  Bower}'  will 
well  repay  the  curious,  or  those  who  want  the  best  Goods 
at  surprisingly  low  prices. 


TouRJEE's  Tours, 

FOURTH    SEASON, 

The  most  enjoyable,  economical  and  successful  excur- 
sion tours  ever  planned  to  the 

OLD    WORLD. 

All  Travel  and  Hotels  First-Class. 

COMPANY    SELECT. 

Important  additions  to  our  former  tours.  Extra  in- 
ducements without  extra  charge.  Early  registration 
important.  Parties  contemplating  a  visit  to  Europe 
should  send  for  circular  giving  full  particulars. 

E.    TOURJEE, 

Music  Hall,  Boston. 


The  following  is  from  the  Physicians'  Pocket  Manual 
and  Year  Book. 

"  Three  years  ago,  he  planned  a  new  way  of  seeing  the 
wonders  of  the  Old  World,  and  what  have  now  become 
famous  as  the  Tourjee  Excursions  are  such  as  every  in- 
telligent person  will  heartily  endorse 

The  cost  to  each  excursionist  varies  from  $175  to  $700, 
and  these  figures  include  first-class  transportation,  hotel 
accommodations,  carriage  drives,  lunches  and  all  inci- 
dentals. From  the  time  he  embarks  to  the  day  he  returns 
to  New  York,  the  tourist  is  not  obliged  to  take  out  an 
additional  cent  from  his  purse.  We  heartily,  endorse 
these  pleasant  trips,  and  believe  that  they  merit  the 
appreciation  of  the  medical  profession.  In  the  previous 
excursions,  quite  a  number  of  eastern  medical  men 
participated,  and  several  will  have  gone  over  the  ground 
again  the  present  year.  The  advantages  which  they  offer 
for  recuperation,  both  to  physicians  and  patients,  are  un- 
surpassed, and  we  hope  that  many  a  vear  will  have  passed 
before  thev  shall  be  discontinued.  The  old  way  of  seeing 
the  Old  World  has  alwavs  had  many  drawbacks ;  the  new 
way  affords  thrice  the  benefit  for  less  than  one-half  the 
expenditure." 


FRANK  LESLIE'S  ILLUSTRATED  PUBLICATIONS. 

RATES   OF   SUBSCRIPTION,    POSTAGE    PAID. 
WEEKLIES. 

Frank  Leslie's  Illustrated  Newspaper — The 
only  pictorial  record  of  current  events,  devoted  to 
news,  literature,  art,  and  science,     .         .         .  $4.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Chimney  Corner — The  best  Amer- 
ican family  journal,  story  paper,  and  home  friend,  4.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Lady's  Journal — The  highest  ex- 
ponent of  fashion  and  taste,     .....  4.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Illustrirte  Zeitung — In  the  Ger- 
man language.  A  weekly  compendium  of  news  and 
literature, 4.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Boys'  and  Girls'  Weekly — An 
illustrated  journal  of  amusement,  adventure,  and 

instruction, 2.50 

MONTHLIES. 

Frank  Leslie's  Popular  Monthly — The  cheap- 
est and  most  attractive  monthly  magazine,      .         .  3.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Sunday  Magazine — The  best  pic- 
torial religious  periodical, 3.00 

Frank  Leslie's  Lady's  Magazine— Regarded  uni- 
versally as  a  fashion  standard,         .         .         .         •  3-5° 

Frank  Leslie's  Pleasant  Hours — Cheap  and  enter- 
taining. Devoted  to  fiction.  Every  article  complete,  1.50 

Frank  Leslie's  Budget  of  Wit — Filled  with  intel- 
ligent humor, 1.50 

ANNUALS. 

Frank  Leslie's  Illustrated  Almanac  for  1881 — 
A  charming  annual,  with  colored  Plates,         .         .     .25 

Frank  Leslie's  Comic  Almanac — A  racy  annual 
compendium  of  fun,  humor,  and  information,  .     .10 

The  various  publications  of  this  house  embrace  a  wide 

range  of  popular  reading.     The  illustrations  are  of  the 

highest  order,  by  the  most  skilful  artists.     The  literary 

matter  is  contributed   by   authors   and   writers   of  great 

reputation   and   acknowledged  popularity.     Most  liberal 

outlays  are  made  to  secure  the  best  talent  in  the  market, 

both  instructive  and  amusing. 

No  "  traveling  agent "  is  authorized  to  collect  money 

for   our   publications..     Remit  by  money-order,  draft  on 

New  York,  or  registered  letter,  at  our  risk.     Address 
FRANK  LESLIE'S  PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

53,  55,  and  57  Park  Place,  New  York. 


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PIEDMONT  AIR  LINE,  CENTRAL  SHORT  LINE, 

ATLANTIC  COAST  LINE,  THE  BAY  LINE. 

Concentration  of  control  under  One  Maxagemext. 

Special  U.  S.  Fast  Mail,  and  Double  Daily  Passexger  Route. 

SHORTEST   LINES   BETWEEN   NORTH   AND    SOUTH. 

Extended  Pullman  Sleeping-Car  Ser^-ice. 
First-class  equipment  and  all  standard  appliances. 


New  YoFk,  Philadelphia,  Baltimor-e,!  Washington 

TO 

New  Opleans,  Mobile,  Montgomepy,  Atlanta, 

AND  INTERMEDIATE  POINTS:  ALSO, 

ChaFleston,  Maeon,  Savannah,  all  points  in 
Southwest  Georgia,  and  Florida. 

IMMIGRATION. 

Arrangements  have  been  perfected  bv  which  a  complete  svstem  of 
settlers  and  mimigrants'  fares  from  leading  Eastern  cities  exist  to  each 
station  upon  the  hnes  of  railways  of  this  organization,  and  the  attention 
of  immiirrants  and  all  persons  seeking  investments  in  the  Southern  States 
IS  invited  to  exhibits  soon  to  be  published  concerning  unimproved  lands, 
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Piano-Fortes 


Possess  all  the  delicate  tone  and  action  qualities  claimed 

by  the  leading  makers.   An  inspection  will  surely 

prove  the  fact.     The  new 

TREBLE  REFLECTOR 

(Wing  &  Son's  invention,)  gives  a  remarkable  bird-like 
quality  to  the  high  treble  notes. 


As  TO  Prices. 

This  establishment  can  furnish  a  remarkable  instrument 
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ENGLISH. 

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6.00 

Boy's  Own  Paper,  . 

2.00 

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S-75 

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8.80 

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325 

Graphic,  .... 

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Illustrated  News,  ^  . 

8.75 

London  Times  (Weeklv), 

3-25 

Pall  Mall  Budget,    .     "  . 

7.40 

Punch,     .... 

3-75 

Queen,     .... 

9.25 

Saturday  Re^•^ew,    . 

7.40 

Spectator, 

7.40 

Art  Journal,    . 

8. 50 

Comhill,  .... 

3.60 

Eraser,     .... 

8.00 

Hamerton's  Portfolio, 

8.50 

London  Society,       . 

3.60 

Contemporan,'  Review,    . 

7.25 

Nineteenth  Century, 

7-25 

Fortnightly, 

6.50 

Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 

14.25 

AMERICAN. 

Harper's  Magazine, 

$3-45 

Bazar,       . 

3-45 

"         Weekly,    . 

3-45 

"         Young  People, 

1-35 

American  Architect, 

5.50 

American   Journal  of 

Science  and  Art, 

5.00 

Blackwood,      . 

3-45 

Contemporary   Review 

{reprint), 

2.1S 

Literary-  World, 

i.8g 

Lippincott's  Magazine, 

2.65 

Popular  Science  Monthh 

4-35 

Appleton's  Journal, 

.         2.65 

Sunday  Magazine,   . 

2.65 

American  Law  Re\-iew, 

3-45 

New  Englander, 

3.87 

Atlantic  Monthly,    . 

3-45 

Scribner's  Monthly, 

3-45 

St.  Nicholas,  . 

2.6s 

t^^  LIBRARIAN'S  and  Managers  of  Book  Clubs  and  Reading 
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DAILY  OCEAN  EXCURSIONS  TO 

B7  THE  ENTISELY  NEW  PALATIAL  STEAMEES, 

Gr/nd  }[epublic^Columbia. 

Universally  conceded  to  be  the  largest,  finest,  and  best  adapted 

Excursion  Steamers  in  the  world,  combining  everything  that 

contributes  to  the  safety,  comfort,  and  luxury  of 

pleasure  seekers. 

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LEAVES :        With  Band  and  the  Columbia  Glee  Club, 
22d  Street,  North  River,       -        -        -         at     lo.oo  A.  M. 
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Leaving  ROCKAWAY,  Upper  Landings,  at  4.00  p.  m. 
Lower  Landings,    "   4.30    " 

THE    COLUMBIA, 

With  Deverell's  13th  Eeg't  Band  and  Concordia  Glee  Club,  Cornet  Soloist, 
LEAVES :  Zylophone,  etc., 

West  22d  Street,      -.       -      at   9.00  A.  m.  and   2.00  p.  m. 
Pier  6,  North  River,         -       "     9.15     "         "      2.15    " 
Jewell's  Wharf,  Brooklyn,       "     9.30     "         "      2.30    " 

DIRECT  FOR  ROCKAWAY  BEACH. 
Leaving  ROCKAWAY,  Upper  Landings,  at  5.30  p.  m. 
Lower  Landings,    "   6.00    " 


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aided  by  efficient  Officers  and  a  platoon  of  Police. 


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THE 


MUTUAL  LIFE 

Insurance  Company, 

OF  NEW  YORK. 

Eos.  144  AND  146  Broadway. 


F.  S.  WINSTON,   PRESIDENT. 

R.  A,  MCCURDY,  VICE-PRESIDENT. 


Assets,  yanuary  i,  1881, 

OVER 

NINETY-ONE    MILLIONS 

OF    DOLLARS. 


COLONEL  KNOX'S 
Books  of  Travel 


The  boy  l^MiW^  in  the  FAR  E/ST,  Part  !. 

Adventures  of  Two  Youths  in  a  Journey  to  Japan  and 
China.  By  Thomas  W.  Knox.  Illustrated.  8vo, 
Illuminated  Cloth,  $3.00. 


The  boy  TRjlVELEI^S  in  the  F/R  EAST,  Part  II, 

Adventures  of  Two  Youths  in  a  Journey  to  Siam  and 
Java.  With  descriptions  of  Cochin-China,  Cambodia, 
Sumatra,  and  the  Malay  Archipelago.  By  Thomas  W. 
Knox.     Illustrated.    8vo,  Illuminated  Cloth,  $3.00. 


These  volumes  will  serve  an  admirable  purpose  in  the 
education  of  our  young  people. — N.  Y.  Herald. 

That  which  Mayne  Reid  did  for  a  past  generation  Col. 
Knox  is  doing  for  readers  of  to-day.  He  is  producing 
books  of  travel  fascinating  alike  for  old  and  young. — 
N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 

Great  favorites  with  youthful  readers. — Christian-at- 
WORK,  N.  Y. 

The  best,  most  instructive,  and  pleasing  books  for  boys 
ever  issued. — Boston  Post. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 

Franklin  Square,  New  York. 

J^"  Harper  &  Brothers  will  send  any  of  the  above  works  by  mail, 
postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States,  on  receipt  of  price. 


"  V/hoever  would  derive  the  most  htforma= 
Hon,  enjoyment,  and  satisfaction  from  travel, 
should  always  r^se  the  best  Guide =(Books.  " 


OSGOOD'S  AMERICAN  GUIDE-BOOKS, 


"  These  books  contain  everything  which  the  traveler 
wants  to  know,  in  precisely  the  shape  he  wants  to  have  it." 
— Boston  Journal. 


Arranged  on  the  celebrated  Baedeker  plan,  indorsed  by 
all  European  travelers. 

The  history,  poetry,  and  legends  of  each  locality,  tersely 
and  clearly  given. 

Scores  of  maps,  city  plans,  and  panoramas. 

Giving  prices  and  locations  of  all  hotels  and  boarding- 
houses,  summer  resorts,  and  routes. 

There  are  Four  Volumes,  bound  in  flexible  cloth,  and 
each  of  about  500  pages,  with  many  maps  and  plans. 

New  England,         The  Maritime  Provinces, 
The  Middle  States,  _The  White  Mountains. 

"  They  are  simply  indispensable  to  tourists  in  the  regions 
named ;  and  those  who  have  sallied  forth  without  them 
have  omitted  the  really  most  important  part  of  their 
equipment." — Liter,\ry  World. 

"As  for  accuracy,  the  amount  of  work  done  by  the  editor 
has  been  enormous.  To  say  that  the  books  are  better 
than  any  American  books  of  the  sort  that  have  hitherto 
appeared  would  be  superfluous ;  there  is  no  comparison  to 
be  made  between  them  and  their  predecessors." — The 
Independent. 

Revised  Annually. 


***  For  sale  by  all    Booksellers,  or  sent  postpaid  on 
receipt  of  price,  by  the  Publishers, 

JAMES  R.  OSGOOD  &  CO.,  Boston. 


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Id 


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V 


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u. 


THE  OLDEST  NEWSPAPER  IN  AMERICA. 
A  REPRESENTATIVE  JOURNAL  OF  NEW  ENGLAND, 


Established;  Weekly,  1764;  D/ily, 


r*     J  ■  1.  a  f        i  Joseph  R.  Hawley, 
jUOOariCnfilO.,   )   Wm.  H.  Goodrich, 

"i   Chas.  Dudley  Warner, 
j-^UBLlSHERS.  y  Stephen  A.  Hubbard. 

New  Courant  Building,  State  St. 


THE  COURANT  is  the  Oldest  Newspaper  in  the 
United  States,  and,  with  less  than  half  a  dozen  exceptions, 
the  oldest  print  in  the  English  language.  It  was  founded 
in  October,  1764,  and  has  been  published  uninterruptedly, 
under  the  same  title,  ever  since. 


TEfS:  Weekly,  $1.50/yE/ii;  D/ily,  $8.00. 

THE  BEST 
ADVERTISING  MEDIUM 

IN  THE  STATE. 

'^^^  Send  for  sample  copies,  which  will  be  sent  free. 


Insure  Your  Life 


OLD  AND  STRONG  COMPANY. 


THE  /p^TN  A  LIFE 


OF  HARTFORD,  CONN., 

Issues  Policies  upon  all   Desirable 

Plans  at   Rates   Lower  than 

those  of  most  Companies. 


The  i^TNA  Life  Insurance  Company. — In  mention- 
ing this  Company  we  must  reiterate  the  well-known  fact 
that  it  stands  at  the  very  head  of  the  list  of  life  insurance 
companies.  For  thirty  years  it  has  stood  the  storms  of 
financial  fluctuation,  and  now  remains  the  strongest  life 
insurance  company  in  the  country.  Its  management  is  in 
the  hands  of  experienced  and  trustworthy  men,  as  is  shown 
by  referring  to  the  condition  of  the  Company  shown  by 
their  statement  of  affairs.— Hartford  Journal. 


STATUARY 

IN 

Granite, 

Marble,  and 

Bronze, 

JlFtistie  Memorials, 

AND 

Building  Work 

IN  ALL  KINDS  OF  GRANITE, 


Original  Designs  and  Estiinates 
furnished  Free  on  application. 


WORK  DELIVERED  IN  ALL  PARTS  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

ADDRESS 

The  1(ew  l^ip^  Gr/i^ite  Woi|ks, 

HARTFORD,  CONN. 
Quarries  at  Westerly,  R.  I. 


BUY  THE 


<i 


HARTFORD" 


FOR  DURABILITY,  COMFORT,  AND  ECONOMY 


WARRANTED  NEVER  TO  SAG. 

NEVER  TO  LOSE  ITS  SHAPE. 

NEVER  TO  MAKE  A  NOISE. 

NEVER  TO  NEED  A  REPAIR. 


The  "  HA  R  TFORD  "  Mattress  is  durable.  It  will  last  a  ii/e-time. 
One-third  of  ever\-  person's  life  ought  to  be  spent  in  sleep,  hence  the 
necessity  for  z.  perfect  sleeping  arrangetnent.  The  "  HA  R  TFORD  " 
Mattress  affords  the  greatest  comfort ;  co7i/ormhig  to  tJie  body,  it  makes 
a  most  d^Ughtfid  bed.  The  "HARTFORD'''  Mattress  will  r-ever 
wear  out  or  need  a  repair.  Requiring  over  the  Mattress  only  a  bianket 
or  a  very  light  mattress,  much  is  saved  in  the  way  of  expense  in  not 
being  obliged  to  purcliase  hea\y  hair  mattresses  or  other  over-bedding. 
The  "HARTFORD''  Woven  Wire  Mattress  is  free  from  tlie 
disagreeable  noises  so  annoying  in  the  upright  spiral  spring.  The 
"HARTFORD''  Mattress  always  keeps  its  shape,  being  as  elastic 
and  flexible  after  fifteen  years  use  as  when  first  manufactured.  Investi- 
gate its  merits.  Buy  only  the  genuine  "HARTFORD."  Take  no 
other.  Beware  of  imitations  and  infringements.  Ever\'  Mattress  marked 
"HARTFORD."     For  prices,  catalogues,  or  any  desired  information, 

ADDRESS 

Hartford  Woven  Wire  Mattress  Co, 

Box  148,  Hartford,  Conn.,  U.  S.  A. 

HENRY  ROBERTS,   Secret.\rv. 


"the  hartford" 
Sewing  Machine 

THE  UTEST  PRODUCriOH, 

Combining  all  the  BEST  points  of  former  models  of 
Machines  with  new  excellencies  of  its  own. 


The  lightest  running  Machine  ever  made. 

SIMPLE,  STRONG,  DURABLE. 

The  only  High-Arm  Machine  making  the  *'  Pearl  Stitch.* 

All  Bearings  of  Steel  or  Forgings. 

Self- Ad  justing  Tensions. 

The  Original  and  Simplest  Cylinder  Shuttle. 

Elegant  Ornamentation. 


"THE  GENERAL  FAVORITE," 

For  Shoemakers,  Saddlers,  Tailors,  Etc., 

IS   THE 
STANDARD  AMONG  AMERICAN  MANUFACTURERS. 


Weed  Sewing  MaeMne  Company, 

Hartford,  Conn.,  U.  S.  A. 


ESTERBROOK'S 

Steel  Pens 


The  Most  Popular  Pens  in  Use. 

For  sale  by  all  Stationers. 

Leading  Nos.   048,    14,    130,   333,    161. 


Samples  and  Catalogue  on  Application. 

THE   ESTERBROOK  STEEL  PEN  CO., 

Works,  Camden,  N.J.  26  John  St.,  New  York. 

N.  P.  FLETCHER  &  CO., 

Hartford,  Conn, 

Publishers,  and  Manufacturers  of  the  Celebrated 

Fletcher  Ink  Extracts. 


These  preparations  are  soluble  concentrated  compounds,  containing 
llie  coloring  matters  and  mordants  used  in  the  best  Inks.  By  the 
addition  of  water  only,  an  Ink  of  beautiful  color  and  fine  quality  is  at 
once  produced.  Invahutble  for  Travelers,  as  the  dry  and  powdered 
Extracts  can  be  carried  in  small  space  and  used  at  convenience. 
Used  for  the  last  six  years  in  the  best  Banks,  Insurance  Offices,  and 
Counting  Rooms  of  the  United  States. 

COLORS:  Rose-Scarlet,  Brilliant  Green,  Bbie,  Violet,  atid  Black. 

Full  descriptive  circulars  mailed  on  apphcation. 


FAIRBANKS'  SCALES. 

The  Worlds'  Standard. 

HIGHEST   AWARDS,   WORLD'S    FAIRS. 
London,  1851.  Philadelphia,  1876. 

New  York,  1853.  Sydney,  Australia,  1S77. 

Paris,  1867.  Paris,  1878. 

Vienna,  1873.  Sydney,  Australia,  1880. 

Santiago,  Chili,  1875.  Melbourne,      "  1881. 

At  the  World's  Fair  in  Paris,  in  1S78,  Fairbanks  &  Co.  received 
seven  medals,  more  than  were  awarded  any  other  American  exhibitors ; 
at  the  Sydney,  Australia,  World's  Fair,  in  18S1,  in  competition  with 
manufacturers  from  the  United  States,  Great  Britain,  and  France,  they 
received  a  special  award  above  all  others ;  and  at  Melbourne,  Australia, 
World's  Fair,  in  1881,  also  in  competition  with  American,  English,  and 
French  manufacturers,  Fairbanks' scales  received  the  four  highest  awards. 

The  Cheapest  Scale  Manufactured! 

QUALITY   CONSIDERED. 
Correspondence  solicited.  Price  list  furnished  upon  application. 

OVER  ONE  MILLION  OF  THESE  SCALES  IN  USE. 

^ZZ„.,FAIRBAMS&C0jEwY0RK, 

FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  New  Orleans. 

FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  Montreal. 
FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  London,  Eng. 

FAIRBANKS,  BROWN  &  CO.,  Boston,  Mass. 
FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

FAIRBANKS,  MORSE  &  CO.,  Chicagq. 

FAIRBANKS,  MORSE  &  CO.,  Cincinnati,  O. 
FAIRBANKS,  MORSE  &  CO.,  Cleveland,  O. 
FAIRBANKS,  MORSE  &  CO.,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
FAIRBANKS,  MORSE  &  CO.,  Louisville,  Ky. 
FAIRBANKS  &  CO.,  St.  Louis. 

FAIRBANKS  &  HUTCHINSON,  San  Francisco. 

Agent  for  Fairbanks'  Scales  ^l  T     D]  HrK'    I  MOSCOW  and 
In  the  Russian  Empire,  f  J.    DLUUIV,  [    ST.  PETERSBURG 


LIBERAL  AND   IMPORTANT   CONCESSIONS 
IN   LIFE  INSURANCE   CONTRACTS. 


Examine  the  New  Form  of  Policy 
issued  by 

The  United  States  Life 
Insurance  Company, 

Before  Insuring  Elsewhere. 


NOTE  THE  LIBERALITY  OF  ITS  TERMS. 

After  the  premiums  for  three  or  more  years  have  been 
paid,  upon  receiving  the  required  notice  from  the  assured, 
the  Company  will  continue  the  Policy  in  force  without 
further  payments,  for  its  Full  Face,  for  such  a  period  as 
the  Entire  Reserve  will  carry  it. 

Should  the  death  of  the  insured  take  place  during  the 
continued  term  of  insurance  as  provided  for  above,  the  full 
face  of  the  Policy  will  be  paid — no  deduction  being  made 
for  forborne  or  unpaid  premiums,  excepting  in  the  event 
of  the  death  occurring  within  three  years  after  the  default. 

The  new  form  of  Endowment  Policy  provides  :  That 
if  the  Entire  Reserve  is  a  greater  sum  than  the  single 
premium  required  to  carry  the  full  amount  of  insurance  to 
the  end  of  the  Endowment  term,  the  Excess  shall  be 
issued  as  a  single  premium  to  purchase  a  pure  Endowment, 
payable  at  the  end  of  the  term,  thus  guaranteeing  to  the 
Policy-holder  in  everv  event  the  full  value  of  his  Reserve. 

No  Surrender  of  the  Policy  is  required — only  a  notice 
from  the  Policy-holder,  on  blanks  furnished  by  the  Com- 
pany. 

After  Three  Years,  all  Restrictions  and  Condi- 
tions in  regard  to  travel,  residence,  occupation,  and  cause 
of  death  are  removed,  thus  making  the  Policies  after  three 
years  Incontestable  for  any  Cause  excepting  Fraud. 

All  Forms  of  Life  and  Endozument  Policies  Issued, 


THE  UNITED  STATES 

Life  InsuFanee  Company  in  ttie  City  of  New  YoFk, 
261  Broadway. 


OFFICERS. 
T.  H.  BROSNAN,  President. 
C.  P.  FRALEIGH,  Secretary. 
A.  WHEELWRIGHT,  Assistant  Secretary. 
CHAS.  H.  MILLER,  Cashier. 
GEO.  H.  BURFORD,  Actuary. 
A.  H.  BUCK,  Medical  Director. 
JOHN  P.  MUNN,  Medical  Examiner. 
HEGEMAN  &  BUEL,  Counsel. 

BOARD    OF    DIRECTORS. 
Charles  E.  Bill,  Banker,  13  Broad  Street. 
Isaac  N.  Phelps,  Banker,  45  Wall  Street. 
Clinton  Gilbert,  Treasurer  Greenwich  Savings  Bank. 
Wm.  H.  Bolles,  Retired  Merchant,  Garden  City,  L.  I. 
Henry  W.  Ford,  Pres.  Bank  of  the  Republic. 
Edgar  S.  Van  Winkle,  Counsellor,  48  Wall  Street. 
W  A.  Ogden  Hegeman,  Counsellor,  261  Broadway. 
Thomas  Gardiner,  Retired,  13  East  62d  Street. 
N.  F.  Graves,  Pres.  N.  Y.  State  Bkg.  Co.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
D.  Kellogg  Baker,  Provisions,  335  Greenwich  Street. 
James  Buell,  Banker. 

H.  K.  Thurber,  Wholesale  Grocer,  116  Reade  Street. 
P.  Van  Volkenburgh,  Dry  Goods,  62  Worth  Street. 
Edward  H.  Ammidown,  Dry  Goods,  87  Leonard  Street. 
Julius  Catlin,  Jr.,  Dry  Goods,  132  Church  Street. 
Jno.  a.  Livingston,  Sugar  Refiner,  91  Wall  Street. 
Henry  C.  Hulbert,  Paper,  13  Beekman  Street. 
James  R.  Plum,  Leather,  42  Spruce  Street. 
George  G.  Williams,  Pres.  Chemical  National  Bank. 
Antony  Wallach,  Mfg.  Jeweler,  1 1  Maiden  Lane. 
Oliver  P.  Buel,  Counsellor,  261  Broadway. 
Geo.  W.  Perkins,  President  Mercantile  National  Bank. 
Timothy  H.  Brosnan,  President, 
Henry  L.  Clapp,  Scales,  311  Broadway. 
Raphael  Buchman,  Clothing,  465  Broome  Street. 
Edward  Van  Volkenburgh,  Dry  Goods,  62  Worth  St. 
Charles  P.  Fraleigh,  Secretary,  ^261  Broadway. 
John  P.  Munn,  M.D.,  50  East  31st  Street. 


NITED    STATES    MUTUAL 
Accident  Association. 

Office,   409    Broadway,    -     New   York. 

Incorporated  Oct.  ii.  1877. 
$3.00  will  procure  a  certificate  of  membership  entitling  the  member  to 
$5,000.00  in  die  event  of  death  by  accident,  and  §25.00  weekly  indemnity 
for  totally  disabling  injury'.     Over  4,000  Business  Men  now  members. 

CHARLES  B.  PEET,  President. 
JAMES  K.  PITCHER,  SECRETAiiv. 

BOARD  OF   DIRECTORS. 
Chas.  B.  Peet,  of  Rogers,  Peet  &  Co. 
W.M.  Brinckerhoff,  of  Wm.  Brinckerhoff  &  Co. 
E.  E.  Perry,  with  Wheeler  &  Wilson  Manufacturing  Co. 
WiLLiA.M  E.  Tefft,  of  TeiTt,  Weller  &  Co. 
Ferdinand  P.  Earle,  of  E?^le's  Hotel. 
Decatur  M.  Sawyer,  of  Gov.-ing,  Grew  &  Co. 
W:,i.  Bro.  Smith,  229  Broadway,  New  York. 
W.  S.  Gilmore,  Crouch  &  Fitzgerald. 
Wm.  Gibson,  ^^ith  Morrison,  Herriman  &  Co. 
Leopold  Wor.mser,  %\-ith  L.  Levenson  &  Co. 
James  S.  Leeds,  of  Wm.  T.  Llovd  &  Co. 
George  C.  Clarke,  of  Tefft,  Weller  &  Co. 

PORTABILITY  COMBINED  WITH  GREAT  POWER 

IN  AND   GENER:AL 

OUT-DOOR 

DAY  AND  NIGHT 

)        L__^  ^^M  DOUBLE 

~    '"        PERSPECTIVE 


FIELD, 
MARINE, 
TOURIST 
OPERA, 


GLASSES 


li^ill  sJurw  Objects  Distinctly   Two  to  Six  Miles. 

Spectacles  and  Eye-Glasses. 

To  Strengthen  .\nd  I.mprove  the  Sight, 

Adjusted  to  all  Defects  of  Vision. 

C  atalogues  sent  by  enclosing  stamp. 


SEMMONS 


Oculist  and  Optician, 
687  BFoadway,  New  York. 


Accident  Departisibnt, 


MUTDAL  BENEFIT  LIFE  CO, 

118  Asylum  Street^ 
HARTFORD.    CONN. 


Accident  Proteetion  at  Actual  Cost ! 

ADMISSION: 

$3  for  any  Amount  up  to  $3000, 

Future  Expenses  25  cents  per  month  as  long  as  continued, 

and  assessments  to  cover  losses  only, 

at  table  rates. 


ANY    MAN    HIS     OWN    AGENT. 


Send  for  Application,  which  anyone  may  fill  out,  and 
return  to  Company  with  fee. 


WEEKLY  INDEMNITY,  $5  to  $25. 


jg^AGENTS   .WANTED   EVERYWHERE. 


THE  ThAV^L^h^ 

Life  and  Accident  Insurance  Co., 

HARTFORD,  CONN. 


Oldest  and  Largest  in  America. 

JAS.  G.  BATTERSON,  President. 

RODNEY  DENNIS,  Secretary, 

Cash  Assets,,      $5,519,000 
Surplus,  1,467,000 

Benefits   Paid,    5,650,000 


GENERAL   ACCIDENT    POLICIES,   by  the  year  or 
month,  written  by  Agents. 

REGISTERED  ACCIDENT  TICKETS,  one  to  thirty 
days,  at  Agencies  and  Railroad  Stations. 

PERMIT  FOR  FOREIGN  VOYAGE  at  slight  addition 
to  cost  of  ordinary  Policy. 


Accident  Policies  \Vritten, 650,000 

Accident  Claims  Paid,  .  •  ^     .       55>ooo 

Amount  Paid  for  Accidents,  .         $4,000,000 


REGULAR  LIFE  INSURANCE,  all  best  forms,  wit^ 
ample  security,  at  Low  Cash  Rates. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILIT 


♦"  Hov 

B    000  006  068    i 
FIRST   OF   ALL. 

Insure 
'  Against 
Accidents  ! 

■ACCIDENTS    WILL    HAPPEN," 

AND 

EVERY  TRAVELER  needs  ACCIDENT  INSURANCE 

AS   AN 

Essential  Part  of  his  Outfit. 


THE  TRAVELERS, 

OF  HARTFORD, 

WILL   FIT   YOU    OUT   AT   SHORT   NOTICE 

AND   FOR   A  VERY   LITTLE   MONEY. 

Apply  to  any  Agent  or  Write  to  the  Company. 

agents  almost  everywhere. 


